April 25, 2025
In NYTimes Op-Ed, Pressley, Markey, McGovern: We Visited Rümeysa Öztürk in Detention. What We Saw Was a Warning to Us All.
“When a government begins to imprison writers for their words, when it abandons legal norms for political convenience, when it cloaks oppression in the language of national security, alarm bells must ring. Loudly.”
BOSTON – Today, in a powerful New York Times op-ed, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), along with Senator Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Congressman James P. McGovern (MA-02), discussed their meeting with Rümeysa 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. The op-ed follows their recent visit to Louisiana to meet with Ms. Öztürk at the ICE facility where she is being unlawfully detained.
In the piece, the lawmakers emphasize that her experience – being abducted off the street and detained with no due process, simply for co-authoring an op-ed – is not one in isolation, and has implications for American democracy and everyone who calls this country home. Additionally, the lawmakers renewed their call for the immediate release of Ms. Öztürk, and called for an investigation into the inhumane conditions at the for-profit, privately operated detention center in Basile, Louisiana where she is being held.
Full text of the op-ed is available here and a short excerpt is below.
New York Times Op-Ed: We Visited Rümeysa Öztürk in Detention. What We Saw Was a Warning to Us All.
By Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, Senator Ed Markey, and Congressman Jim McGovern
April 25, 2025We visited Ms. Ozturk earlier this week…
What we found was not just a young woman locked up without charge but also a democracy being put to the test.
…
When a government begins to imprison writers for their words, when it abandons legal norms for political convenience, when it cloaks oppression in the language of national security, alarm bells must ring. Loudly.
…
The Constitution is only as strong as our willingness to defend it.
Read the full op-ed on the New York Times website here.
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