{"id":27705,"date":"2025-04-17T13:09:43","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T11:09:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/?post_type=news&p=27705"},"modified":"2025-04-17T14:36:42","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T12:36:42","slug":"seiu-demands-release-of-rumeysa-ozturk-workers","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/uniglobalunion.org\/news\/seiu-demands-release-of-rumeysa-ozturk-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"SEIU demands release of unjustly detained workers, citing political retaliation"},"content":{"rendered":"

UNI Global Union\u2019s U.S. affiliate, SEIU, is protesting the Trump administration\u2019s immoral detention of immigrant workers \u2013 including SEIU members.<\/p>\r\n

The two-million-member union has launched protests across the country, demanding the release of Rumeysa Ozturk<\/strong>, a Tufts University graduate student and SEIU Local 509 member. Federal agents forcefully detained Ozturk, a Turkish national, in Boston last month.<\/p>\r\n

SEIU President April Verrett<\/strong> issued a statement<\/a> saying Ozturk was:<\/p>\r\n

\r\n
\u201c\u2026was snatched by masked federal immigration authorities on Tuesday night on her way to Ramadan services. Her arrest, with no charges filed, is yet another chilling example of this administration\u2019s efforts to use immigration actions to target and silence people merely for criticizing U.S. policy in the Middle East. Ozturk, from Turkey, had a valid student visa, and her lawyer has no idea where she has been taken or why, though she had recently co-authored an op-ed in the student newspaper in support of the people of Palestine.\u201d<\/em><\/h5>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

The U.S. government has produced no evidence justifying Ozturk\u2019s abduction. The Washington Post<\/em> reports a leaked State Department memo<\/a> that finds no wrongdoing by Ozturk and further raises concerns her arrest was politically driven.<\/p>\r\n

\"Projections<\/a>\u201cThe U.S. Secretary of State is using the power of his office to silence a graduate student over an op-ed. It\u2019s as chilling as it is appalling,\u201d said UNI Global Union General Secretary Christy Hoffman<\/strong>. \u201cIf Rumeysa is not safe, nobody is.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

SEIU is also demanding the release of Llewellyn Dixon<\/strong>, a 50-year green card holder and SEIU 925 member detained since February. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested the University of Washington worker as she returned from her native Philippines.<\/p>\r\n

On 1 April, SEIU projected<\/a>\u00a0the slogans \u201cFree Speech, Free Workers\u201d onto their headquarters in Washington, D.C. Several local branches, including\u00a032BJ SEIU<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0also participated in actions to demand the freedom of Ozturk and Dixon from ICE custody.<\/p>\r\n

The governor of Massachusetts<\/strong>, mayor of Boston<\/strong>, and groups across the political spectrum \u2013 including Jewish and Republican student organizations at Tufts<\/strong> \u2013 have publicly backed Ozturk\u2019s release.<\/p>\r\n

Last week, 27 U.S. Jewish organizations \u2013 including the Jewish Labor Committee, Chaired by RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum<\/strong> \u2013 filed a powerful amicus brief in support of Ozturk\u2019s release, stating:<\/p>\r\n

[T]he images of \u00d6zt\u00fcrk\u2019s arrest in twenty-first century Massachusetts evoke the oppressive tactics employed by the authoritarian regimes that many ancestors of amici\u2019s members left behind in Odessa, Kishinev and Warsaw, among a great many others. To watch state authorities undermine the same fundamental rights that empowered so many Jewish Americans is chilling; to know it is being done in the name of the Jewish people is profoundly disturbing.<\/em><\/p>\r\n

Take action! Support Rumeysa’s legal fund.<\/a><\/h3>\r\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UNI affiliate SEIU is protesting the Trump administration\u2019s unjust detention of immigrants \u2013 including union members like Rumeysa Ozturk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":27708,"template":"","categories":[163],"global-issues":[],"sectors":[],"cross-sector-groups":[],"workers-rights":[],"regions":[86],"topics":[],"class_list":["post-27705","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-tag","regions-uni-americas"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSEIU demands release of unjustly detained workers, citing political retaliation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"UNI affiliate SEIU is protesting the Trump administration\u2019s unjust detention of immigrants \u2013 including union members like Rumeysa Ozturk.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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