Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07)
“This abuse of your authority risks normalizing a future where Secretaries of State may summarily revoke visas based on speech, depriving individuals of their rights and whittling down the guarantees of the First Amendment.”
WASHINGTON – Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), alongside U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) led 12 lawmakers in pressing Secretary of State Marco Rubio on his abuse of power and possible First Amendment violations. Recent reports revealed that under Secretary Rubio, the State Department reportedly targeted students and academics for detention and deportation based on constitutionally protected speech.
“This abuse of your authority risks normalizing a future where Secretaries of State may summarily revoke visas based on speech, depriving individuals of their rights and whittling down the guarantees of the First Amendment,” wrote the lawmakers.
Senators Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), along with Representatives Becca Balint (D-Vt.), Jesús “Chuy” Garcia (D-Ill.), Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Greg Casar (D-Texas), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), joined in signing the letter.
Recently unsealed court records confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security identified students for deportation based on the students’ articles, participation in protests, and social media posts, and shared that information with the State Department. Many of the students were detained for months, despite the fact that none of them were accused of a crime at the time — or have been to date.
Among those detained was Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk, a Massachusetts resident who was arrested and had her visa revoked in March 2025, reportedly because of an op-ed she wrote related to the war in Gaza. The State Department has admitted that it does not have any evidence Ozturk engaged in anti-Semitic activity.
Columbia University students, as well as a Georgetown University post-doc student, were arrested and detained on similar grounds. The unsealed documents reveal that the State Department determined it did not have evidence to justify deporting these students on the basis of allegedly supporting terrorists. At the same time, the administration has said that some students displayed “support for a terrorist organization” on social media.
“[These memos] raise substantial questions about the process the State Department follows, if any, in independently verifying the evidence presented by DHS in whether to pursue deportations,” wrote the lawmakers.
The lawmakers expressed particular concern over Secretary Rubio’s use of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), which gives the Secretary of State the power to deport noncitizens the Secretary believes “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
Rubio was reportedly advised to personally determine whether this provision justified many of the deportations, a power that had never previously been exercised.
The lawmakers asked the Secretary to provide detailed explanations regarding the unprecedented invocation of this personal authority and all of the cases in which he has determined that a noncitizen be deported, as well as the agency’s reliance on information provided by political organizations to inform its determinations.
Text of the letter can be accessed here.
This letter is endorsed by The National Immigration Law Center and the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Rep. Pressley has been a champion for students unlawfully detained for practicing their First Amendment rights, including for her constituent Rümeysa Öztürk:
- On March 26, 2025, Rep. Pressley issued a statement condemning reports that ICE arrested and detained Rumeysa Ozturk, an international student with legal status in a graduate program at Tufts University.
- On March 28, 2025, Rep. Pressley, along with Sens. Warren and Markey, pushed for answers and action since Öztürk’s March arrest. They led over 30 lawmakers in writing to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Acting Director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Todd Lyons, demanding information about Öztürk’s arrest and detention as well as similar incidents across the country.
- On April 3, 2025, Rep. Pressley, along with Sens. Warren and Markey sounded the alarm on Öztürk’s medical neglect in DHS custody and renewed urgent calls for her release.
- On April 18, 2025, Rep. Pressley, along with Sens. Warren and Markey demanded Secretary of State Rubio released any documents related to her arrest after a recent report indicated that an internal State Department memo concluded that the key premise underlying Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk’s arrest and detention was false.
- On April 23, 2025, Rep. Pressley, Sen. Markey, and Rep. McGovern traveled to ICE facilities in Basile and Jena, where Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil were being unlawfully detained and subjected to inhumane conditions in retaliation for their protected speech. Rep. Pressley, Senator Markey, and Rep. McGovern recounted their harrowing visit at a press conference in Boston.
- On April 25, 2025, in a powerful New York Times op-ed, Rep. Pressley, Sen. Markey, and Rep. McGovern discussed their meeting with Ms. Öztürk in detention and warned the American people of the dangers posed by the Trump administration’s unlawful attacks on our constitutional rights to freedom of speech and due process. Full text of the op-ed is available here.
- On May 7, 2025, Rep. Pressley, Sen. Markey, and Rep. McGovern applauded the Second Circuit for ordering Rümeysa’s transfer from ICE custody in Louisiana to Vermont and rejecting the Trump administration’s attempt to delay complying with a lower court order to do so.
- On May 8, 2025, Rep. Pressley, along with Senator Markey, Ranking Member Bennie Thompson, Congressman Jim McGovern, and Congressman Troy Carter sent a letter to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seeking more information on the detention conditions of immigrants held at the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center (CLIPC) and the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center (SLIPC) after an oversight trip to the facilities last month.
- On May 9, 2025, Rep. Pressley, along with Sens. Markey and Warren and Rep. McGovern celebrated the court order ordering Rümeysa Öztürk release.
- On May 11, 2025, Rep. Pressley and Sen. Markey welcomed Rümeysa Öztürk back to Massachusetts at her request following her release from ICE detention.
###