Labor union protests in Boston, calling for Tufts student to be released from ICE custody

A union leader led a chant for a crowd of more than 200 people, including Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and state Attorney General Andrea Campbell, who gathered in downtown Boston Tuesday evening to protest the arrest of Tufts University doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk by immigration agents.

“Come for one, face us all,” said David Foley, president of the Service Employees International Union, Local 509. The crowd shouted back: “Free Rümeysa, free them all!”

Öztürk, a member of Foley’s SEIU local, was surrounded and handcuffed last week by six plainclothes immigration officers and taken in an unmarked SUV near Tufts in Somerville. She is a Turkish national and Fulbright Scholar studying on an F-1 visa. A neighbor’s doorbell camera captured the arrest on video.

At the rally, held near the John F. Kennedy Federal Building, Wu said, “Boston will never back down to bullies.”

The mayor, who was recently summoned to Washington, D.C. to be grilled before Congress about Boston’s immigration enforcement policy, on Tuesday said, "We are in dark times.”

She added, “We are asking unthinkable questions about whether we still live in a democracy with rule of law, where we’re protected for our individuality and our humanity, or if we are living in a time when bullying and intimidation are how our government operates.”

Öztürk is currently being held at a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. Documents filed in federal court in Boston late Tuesday revealed more of Öztürk's ordeal in ICE custody. On the day of her arrest, agents picked her up at about 5:15 p.m., took her to Methuen, then to Lebanon, New Hampshire, and finally to an ICE field office in St. Albans, Vermont, at 10:28 p.m.

A federal judge in Boston issued an order that night that Öztürk not be moved from Massachusetts. But it was already too late; she was being held in Vermont by then. At 4 a.m. the next day, ICE took her to the Burlington International Airport and flew her to Louisiana, arriving at 2:35 p.m., court records show.

Prosecutors are defending the detainment of Öztürk, arguing in the federal court filing Tuesday that the Massachusetts court does not have jurisdiction in the case.

State Attorney General Andrea Campbell, speaking at the rally, called this moment a “constitutional crisis.”

“It’s not an on or off switch, it’s the turning of a dial,” Campbell said, “and we’re heading in a very dangerous direction, if what can happen to Rümeysa can remain and can stand without us organizing and mobilizing every single day. So you better believe I’m unafraid. Bring it on.”

Boston was one of at least a dozen cities where union members held rallies Tuesday. Many state senators and city council members attended the rally downtown. A group of Öztürk’s peers and friends spoke in turn about her academic excellence and community contributions, demanding her return.

Laura Beretsky, a Somerville resident and grant writer for MIT, said it was important to stand up for anybody detained by the government without due process. She wore a pin that said, “Dissent is Patriotic.”

“If we don’t stand up, it’s not long before they’ll come after the rest of us, too, just because we express a view that is not in line with the current administration’s,” Beretsky said.

Steven Thomas, another Somerville resident and former MIT alumni association employee, expressed outrage: “This is not the country that I think I live in,” Thomas said. “And now I do. I’m furious. They snatched a young woman off the street. No due process.”

He said there’s danger of a slippery slope. “It’s all sending the message: you’re at risk, so keep your mouth shut,” he said.

In another arrest of a union member, SEIU Local 925's Lewelyn Dixon, a University of Washington lab technician and legal green card holder, was detained at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, returning from a trip to the Philippines in late February.

SEIU President April Verrett said the union is not going to be silent.

“Let us use our power to build the America that we were promised, the one that they are trying to snatch away from our dreams,” she said.

Verrett also talked about the concept of freedom.

“We dealt with the dreams deferred too long,” Verrett said. “We’ve got to seize this moment and make it ours. We're right here. We're not backing down. We want Rümeysa back. We want Lewelyn Dixon back. We want every single person who has been detained. We want them back.”

This story is part of a partnership between WBUR and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Steven Thomas’ employment. The post has been updated. We regret the error.