{"id":3729,"date":"2025-09-26T17:00:32","date_gmt":"2025-09-26T17:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-awp-vermont.pantheonsite.io\/?p=3729"},"modified":"2025-09-26T17:11:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-26T17:11:55","slug":"the-road-to-justice-runs-through-vermont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.acluvt.org\/news\/the-road-to-justice-runs-through-vermont\/","title":{"rendered":"The road to justice runs through Vermont"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This spring, Vermont\u2014and with it, our small ACLU affiliate\u2014found itself as an unlikely epicenter in President Trump\u2019s efforts to silence, intimidate, and deport noncitizens for their constitutionally protected speech. Our work fighting for Mohsen and R\u00fcmeysa continues this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":{"header_layout":"standard","header_image":3744,"mobile_header_image":null,"description":"This spring, Vermont\u2014and with it, our small ACLU affiliate\u2014found itself as an unlikely epicenter in President Trump\u2019s efforts to silence, intimidate, and deport noncitizens for their constitutionally protected speech. Our work fighting for Mohsen and R\u00fcmeysa continues this fall.","authors":null,"components":[{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Earlier this year, Vermont found itself thrust into a nationally and historically significant battle over core constitutional rights and democratic values.\r\n\r\nAt the center of that fight are two courageous ACLU of Vermont clients, R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk and Mohsen Mahdawi. In March, ICE officials arrested R\u00fcmeysa and shuttled her across state lines under the cover of night\u2014from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, up to St. Albans, and ultimately to Louisiana\u2014and in April, they arrested Mohsen Mahdawi after his citizenship interview in Colchester. Both were held in prison for weeks in retaliation for their constitutionally protected speech in support of Palestinian human rights.\r\n\r\nThese maneuvers by the federal government landed both of their cases in Vermont District Court<b>\u2014and alongside our partners, we struck a powerful blow against the president\u2019s wrongful detention efforts when we secured the release of both Mohsen and R\u00fcmeysa in Vermont District Court. <\/b>"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"content_link","content_link":{"":null,"content_link_field_group":{"url":"https:\/\/action.aclu.org\/give\/support-aclu-vermont-foundation","":null,"title_override":"Your donations power our work","image_override":3732,"hide_description":false,"description":"The ACLU defends basic freedoms every day, for everyone. When you contribute to the ACLU Foundation of Vermont, you're supporting our efforts to defend and advance civil liberties for all people \u2013 not only in Vermont, but nationwide.","title":"Support the ACLU Foundation of Vermont  | American Civil Liberties Union","og-title":"Support the ACLU Foundation of Vermont ","og-image":3331,"og-site-name":""},"card_variant":"vertical","hide_image":false,"width":"standard","alignment":"left"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Following our clients\u2019 release from detention, the government appealed each of the Vermont District Court judges\u2019 decisions to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. <strong>On September 30th, we\u2019re headed to court with our co-counsel to argue against the administration\u2019s ongoing effort to punish our clients for speaking in support of Palestinian human rights. <\/strong>"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"How did we get here? ","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"In March, six masked agents abducted R\u00fcmeysa off the street in Somerville, Massachusetts. They rushed her to St. Albans, where she remained overnight before being flown to Louisiana and imprisoned in an ICE detention facility. Because she was physically in Vermont when her attorneys filed a habeas petition seeking her release from custody, two federal judges agreed that her case should be heard in Vermont District Court\u2014and the ACLU of Vermont joined the fight to bring her home. After she spent six grueling weeks in detention, Judge Sessions ordered her release, and R\u00fcmeysa returned home to resume her studies.\r\n\r\nBut R\u00fcmeysa would not be the last student targeted by the Trump administration for their protected speech. As our team exited the courthouse after a hearing in R\u00fcmeysa\u2019s case on April 14th, one of our attorneys received a phone call informing her that Mohsen had been arrested by ICE agents at the Department of Homeland Security field office in Colchester. He had just finished his final citizenship interview\u2014typically the last step in becoming a naturalized citizen\u2014when masked agents entered the room, handcuffed him, and took him straight to the airport in Burlington.\r\n\r\nThe government\u2019s plan to whisk Mohsen away from his lawyers and his community by flying him to Louisiana was thwarted when a federal judge blocked his transfer out of state. He was imprisoned for 16 days at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in St. Albans before a judge ordered his release. Mohsen was allowed to return home to the Upper Valley and, this fall, began a master\u2019s program at Columbia University while his immigration and habeas cases proceed.\r\n\r\nIn each of these cases, the government appealed the Vermont District Court judges\u2019 decisions to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. A panel of three Second Circuit Court of Appeals judges denied the government\u2019s request to pause their release via an emergency stay order. On September 30th, a new panel of three Second Circuit Court of Appeals judges will hear arguments on the merits of the government\u2019s appeals."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"Why were Mohsen and R\u00fcmeysa targeted? ","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"Both of our clients were targeted as a direct result of their speech on matters of public concern\u2014specifically, advocacy in support of Palestinian human rights.\r\n\r\nR\u00fcmeysa, a Turkish PhD candidate at Tufts University, co-wrote an op-ed in her student newspaper last year in which she criticized the university for its response to student activism in support of Palestinians\u2014speech that is clearly protected by the First Amendment. Mohsen, who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank, frequently spoke in public of his experience growing up in Palestine and led some of the student protests against the war in Gaza at Columbia University\u2014exercising his well-established First Amendment right to freedom of expression.\r\n\r\nThese cases are prime examples of the assault on the rights of noncitizens and the First Amendment, as well as the Trump administration\u2019s abuse of power more broadly. Anyone who is concerned about our fundamental civil rights and civil liberties should be concerned by the government\u2019s actions in these cases, regardless of one\u2019s immigration status or viewpoint on the war in Gaza."}},{"acf_fc_layout":"heading","heading":{"":null,"text":"What happens next? ","anchor":"","sub-heading":"","type":"h2","heading-style":"standard"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"text","text":{"text":"At the heart of the government\u2019s appeal in Mohsen\u2019s case are two key questions: (1) whether or not a noncitizen can challenge their ICE detention in federal district court if their detention is unconstitutional\u2014and (2) whether the district court overstepped its authority when the judge released him on bail while his case moves forward.\r\n\r\nIn R\u00fcmeysa\u2019s case, the appeals court is considering similar questions, as well as whether or not a district court judge has the authority to order ICE to transfer a detainee from one state to another.\r\n\r\nWe do not know when the Second Circuit Court of Appeals will issue its decisions in these cases but will share updates when we have them. No matter where or how the government tries to violate people\u2019s rights and cover its own tracks along the way, we will continue fighting from every corner of the country.\r\n\r\n<i>Join the fight today by <a href=\"https:\/\/action.aclu.org\/give\/support-aclu-vermont-foundation\">making a donation to the ACLU of Vermont<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/action.aclu.org\/give\/join-aclu-vermont?ms=web__aff_vt_menu_join\">becoming a member of the ACLU<\/a>, or <a href=\"http:\/\/acluvt.org\/team\">signing up for our Action Team<\/a>.<\/i>"}}],"issues":[1366],"related_content":[],"documents":null},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The road to justice runs through Vermont - ACLU of Vermont<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/live-awp-vermont.pantheonsite.io\/news\/the-road-to-justice-runs-through-vermont\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The road to justice runs through Vermont - ACLU of Vermont\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This spring, Vermont\u2014and with it, our small ACLU affiliate\u2014found itself as an unlikely epicenter in President Trump\u2019s efforts to silence, intimidate, and deport noncitizens for their constitutionally protected speech. 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