Congress members visit detained Columbia, Tufts students in Louisiana ICE lockups

BASILE – U.S. Rep Troy Carter, a New Orleans Democrat, accused the Trump administration of violating the rights of immigrants, including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Öztürk, both arrested by immigration agents over political speech and shipped to immigration lockups in rural Louisiana.

“This is America. This is not some communist state,” said Carter, speaking Tuesday afternoon from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center, a privately run women’s immigration detention center, where Özturk, a Tufts University student originally from Turkey, has been detained since late March.