Democrats Travel to Louisiana ICE Prisons to Demand Release of Khalil, Öztürk

A delegation of five congressional Democrats traveled to Louisiana on Tuesday to visit Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk in the immigration prisons they’re being held in and to demand their release.

The group of lawmakers, led by Rep. Troy Carter (Louisiana), is the first from Congress to visit either Khalil or Öztürk since they were abducted by immigration agents last month and flown from their homes in New York and Massachusetts, respectively, to Louisiana.

The group also included Sen. Ed Markey (Massachusetts) and Representatives Jim McGovern (Massachusetts), Ayanna Pressley (Massachusetts), and Bennie Thompson (Mississippi).

The lawmakers have said that Khalil and Öztürk are “political prisoners” now held in detention centers known for their abuses only because they advocated for Palestinian rights.

The administration “is seeking to circumscribe the constitutional rights of Rümeysa Öztürk, of Mahmoud Khalil, and, from my observation of these two facilities, from many other people who are incarcerated here in Louisiana,” said Markey in a press conference held by the lawmakers after the visit.

The purpose of Öztürk and Khalil’s detention, he said, is for the administration to “make examples of” what happens to those who express viewpoints it opposes.

Indeed, the government’s only argument against Khalil, as shown by court documents, is that his beliefs somehow undermine U.S. foreign policy, despite the fact that his actions are “otherwise lawful.” Öztürk, on the other hand, was only abducted for an op-ed she wrote calling on her university, Tufts, to recognize the Gaza genocide and divest from Israel.

“They are not getting the medical attention which they need and deserve in this facility, there’s no question,” said Markey, referring in part to reports from Öztürk that she has had at least five asthma attacks while being denied needed medicine by immigration officers. “Notwithstanding that, Rümeysa continues to have a spirit. She continues to have a sense of right that fuels her very being.”

The Democrats called on the American public to stand up against the Trump administration’s regime as it conducts its all-out raid of communities across the country while also seeking to dismantle the welfare state.

“Mahmoud Khalil has lived in Syria under [Bashar] Assad. He knows what an authoritarian regime looks like. And he says this is it,” said Pressley.

Immigration officials forced Khalil to miss the birth of his and his wife’s first child on Monday, denying his request for temporary release in order to be present.

“I reject this draconian vision for this country that Donald Trump has. He is a dictator. And the only way to beat a dictator is with defiance. And that’s why we’re here,” she went on.

The lawmakers’ visit comes as some Democrats are visiting constituents in prisons and detention centers who have been targeted by the Trump administration’s deportation campaign.On Monday, Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vermont) met with Columbia University pro-Palestine activist Mohsen Mahdawi in a Vermont prison to advocate for his release.

Meanwhile, last week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) flew to El Salvador to meet with and try to negotiate the return of his constituent, Kilmar Abrego García, a father and union worker whose deportation has been labeled as an “administrative error” by the Trump administration.