Tufts PhD student detained by ICE held in Louisiana
Rümeymsa Öztürk was detained by six masked, unmarked immigration enforcement officers in Somerville around 5 p.m. March 25.
The 30-year-old PhD candidate at Tufts University was approached near her apartment on her way to an Iftar dinner with friends to break her Ramadan fast when a neighbor’s security camera caught the footage of the arrest.
Öztürk is an international student from Turkey with a valid F-1 visa. Her attorneys have argued that Öztürk’s detainment was a result of her public pro-Palestine stance in an op-ed published last year by The Tufts Daily calling out the administration’s response to student protests.
The article “Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions” was co-written by Öztürk and called out the university’s response to student demands for Tufts to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
After being detained, Öztürk’s whereabouts were unknown and no one was able to talk to her until over 24 hours later. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani said March 25 that Öztürk could not be taken outside of Massachusetts state lines without 48 hours notice.
Öztürk was later reported to be in a detention center in Louisiana.
Öztürk is not the first university student to be detained and brought to Louisiana, according to AP News. Mahmoud Khalil, who graduated with a master’s degree from Columbia last year, was also reported to be held in Louisiana due to his position in the pro-Palestine Columbia protests last year.
Tufts University President Sunil Kumar released a statement to the community March 26 about the administration’s support for the Muslim community and said they knew nothing of the arrest prior to the news breaking.
“We recognize how frightening and distressing this situation is for her, her loved ones and the larger community here at Tufts, especially our international students, staff and faculty who may be feeling vulnerable or unsettled by these events,” the letter read.
Following the release of the video showing the arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the detention of Öztürk.
“If you lie to us and get a visa, and then … participate in that sort of activity, we’re going to take away your visa,” Rubio said.
“We do this every day,” he added in a press conference.
Massachusetts lawmakers spoke out against the detainment. Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote a letter calling for Öztürk’s release and called out the “disturbing” arrest, according to The Boston Globe.
U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper issued an order March 28 barring the government from removing Öztürk from the United States until otherwise ordered by the courts, The Tufts Daily reported. Rubio confirmed that Öztürk’s F-1 visa has been revoked.
AG Bondi directs prosecutors to seek death penalty in UnitedHealthcare CEO case
United States Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal prosecutors April 1 to pursue the death penalty against Luigi Mangione after he allegedly killed UnitedHealthcare Chief Executive Officer Brian Thompson.
Interim U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Matthew Podolsky is being directed by Bondi to seek the death penalty. This is the first case that the Department of Justice will pursue the death penalty in since President Donald Trump was sworn into office in January.
New York, which does not allow the death penalty, charged Mangione on 11 counts including one-count of first degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder. A Manhattan grand jury indicted him on all 11 counts and the state will try Mangione before the federal government tries its case. He has pleaded not guilty to the state charges.
Mangione is charged federally with murder through use of a firearm, two stalking charges and a separate firearms offense. A federal charge of murder through use of a firearm is a charge that has the death penalty as the maximum sentence. He has not entered a plea in the federal case.
In Pennsylvania, where Mangione was apprehended by authorities following a weeklong manhunt, Mangione faces additional charges. After being arrested at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Mangione is charged with five counts including possession of an unlicensed firearm and providing false identification to police.
When Mangione was arrested, police found a 9mm handgun that matched the gun used in the killing of Thompson and a notebook that police say Mangione wrote hostile messages about wealthy executives and the health insurance industry.
Because the state case in New York is being tried first, federal prosecutors have not yet pursued a grand jury indictment, which they need to pursue the death penalty. Pennsylvania will try Mangione after his New York and federal trials have concluded.
Juror selection begins in Karen Read retrial
The Karen Read case, a high-profile murder case out of Canton, Massachusetts returned to trial April 1 for juror selection. Read, of Mansfield, was accused of backing into her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, in front of a retired Boston Police Officer home after a night of drinking in January 2022.
Read’s defense team alleges that she is being framed by a widely connected local police force that was able to tamper with evidence against her.
Between her first and second trial Read’s lawyers, and a new prosecutor, filed motions for a heated retrial. Since July 2024, when the first trial ended, the teams have been working to make this trial end with a verdict.
The state chose a new prosecutor for the case. Rather than Adam Lally from the first trial, the Norfolk County DA’s office has hired Hank Brennan as a special prosecutor, who previously defended Whitey Bulger. His involvement is expected to change Massachusetts’ chances in the case, whereas Lally was criticized for his prosecution of the case.
After the first trial, some of the initial jurors spoke to the press about the deliberation process, claiming that the jurors were unanimous in their acquittal of Read on the most serious charge, second-degree murder, and the charge of leaving the scene of a deadly crash.
These allegations resulted in Read’s defense attorneys, Alan Jackson and David Yannetti, moving to have these two charges dropped, on grounds of double jeopardy. This was dismissed by Judge Beverly Cannone. The move to not include the second-degree murder charge, which alleges Read premeditated O’Keefe’s death, would ensure Read would not face life imprisonment.
Read’s defense team has also campaigned to pursue the third-party culprit defense. The defense team alleges that several people who attended the party may have culpability in O’Keefe’s death, including retired Boston Officer, his nephew Colin Albert, or Brian Higgins, an ATF agent who worked on the case.
Cannone ruled against the defense’s allegations of Colin Albert, but a case against Higgins and Brian Albert can be presented.
A five-episode documentary on the first trial of Read was released on Max. “A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read” follows her defense team and outlines impactful evidence from the first trial. The choice to release weeks before the jury selection for the second trial has been speculated as an attempt to taint the potential juror pool, which has already swelled to 1,000 people.
On the first day of Jury selection, April 1, an audit of the Canton Police Department was released, finding that there were lapses in protocol while investigating Read.
Trump tells NBC ‘I’m not joking’ about third term
President Donald Trump told NBC News in an interview March 30 he was “not joking” about trying to serve a third term, potentially challenging the two-term limit outlined in the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution.
Trump has said before he would not rule out running again in 2028. The president told NBC News his allies supported the idea, but said he was focused on the current term.
“A lot of people want me to do it,” said Trump. “But, I mean, I basically tell them we have a long way to go, you know, it’s very early in the administration.”
Removing presidential term limits from the Constitution is no small feat, requiring at least two-thirds of Congress to vote in favor or two-thirds of states to come together for a constitutional convention. Both methods would also require three-quarters of the states to ratify the change.
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee introduced a joint resolution Jan. 23 to allow presidents that have not served two consecutive terms to run for a third, NPR reported.
Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman of New York introduced a house resolution in November to reaffirm the two-term limit. Goldman’s resolution cited multiple instances going back to 2018 where Trump hinted at pursuing a third term.
Trump suggested to NBC News that there were ways to skirt the current term limits, including the possibility of Vice President J.D. Vance running for president in 2028 and passing the role to Trump.
“There are methods which you could do it,” said Trump. He declined to provide other methods or if he had been presented with plans to seek a third term.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said in a statement that Trump’s primary focus remained on his current term and “undoing all the hurt” caused by former President Joe Biden, according to The New York Times.
Steve Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist during his first term, has already endorsed potential 2028 run during an interview on NewsNation March 19.
“I’m a firm believer that President Trump will run and win again in 2028,” said Bannon.
