A group of congressional Democrats visited two people unjustly detained by the Trump administration at Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities in Louisiana on Tuesday.
The delegation—composed of Sen. Ed Markey and Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Jim McGovern, Troy Carter, and Bennie Thompson—called out the administration for violating the due process rights of detainees Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil.
Öztürk is a Turkish national and graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts. Witnesses who watched ICE agents accost and abduct Öztürk said the incident “looked like a kidnapping.” And Khalil is a former graduate student who attended Columbia University. Both are being held after the Trump administration asserted that their advocacy for Palestinians means they should be deported.
“We have a moral obligation to stand with and unequivocally call out the injustices Mahmoud Khalil and too many others are suffering from at the hand of this administration,” Markey wrote in a Blue Sky post discussing his trip.
In a video attached to the post, Markey added, “Khalil deserves due process from a system that respects his constitutional rights, not one that isolates him.”
The Trump administration is conducting a crusade against free speech and dissent, and is abducting and deporting individuals based on the expression of their opinions. Part of the operation is being led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has claimed the administration has the authority to expel legal residents for “past, current, or expected beliefs, statements, or associations that are otherwise lawful.”
In addition to the visit, Markey and Pressley, along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, all of whom represent Massachusetts, sent a letter on Tuesday to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, pushing for information on why detainees like Öztürk were moved from Massachusetts to Louisiana after she was detained.
“Legal experts and immigrant rights advocates have noted a troubling pattern in which ICE transfers detainees to jurisdictions with stricter immigration enforcement—such as Louisiana—thereby increasing the likelihood of deportation and limiting detainees’ access to legal representation and family support,” the lawmakers said.
The Louisiana trip comes shortly after Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland visited El Salvador to advocate for the release of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was abducted and deported by the Trump administration. After Van Hollen’s trip, several other congressional Democrats also visited El Salvador for the same reason.
In both El Salvador and Louisiana, the Democrats have pushed for a restoration of due process, which the Trump administration has denied to these people.