Federal immigration officials are blasting members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation who visited college students at a Louisiana detention facility for spreading “baseless” accusations.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey and Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Jim McGovern argue that Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk’s human rights are being violated at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center they visited last week.

The Democrats spoke of the “harrowing” conditions that Ozturk and other foreign nationals are dealing with at the facility in Basile, a small, rural town in southern Louisiana, after they landed at Logan Airport in Boston.

They argued that the detainees they met with are being denied adequate medical care, subjected to sleep deprivation, not well fed, and are not routinely provided with necessities like toilet paper or blankets to sleep with.

“It was heartbreaking, and it is enraging,” Pressley said at a news conference last Wednesday. “They are humiliated daily, degraded, and denied the basic necessities needed by any human being.”

The delegation also accused federal agents of depriving care to pregnant women at the facility.

An ICE spokesperson has responded to the allegations, saying they are “not only baseless but appear to be a deliberate attempt to discredit the dedicated professionals who uphold ICE’s mission with integrity and care.”

In a statement, the spokesperson highlighted how all detainees are provided a “comprehensive overview of medical care processes and services available, including specialized care for pregnant women.” The Basile facility staffs a specialist women’s health specialist, the spokesperson added.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement categorically rejects the false narrative that individuals in our custody are denied access to adequate medical care or nutritious food,” the statement reads in part. “Such claims are misleading, undermine public trust, and misrepresent the reality of the high standards our personnel uphold daily.”

Ozturk, a fifth-year doctoral student studying at Tufts University on a student visa, was apprehended by masked immigration agents in Somerville last month. Her arrest came after her visa was revoked over alleged support for Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, in an op-ed she co-authored in the student newspaper last year.

A federal judge has ordered that immigration officials must take Ozturk to Vermont by May 1. Ozturk has not been charged with any crime and has remained in Louisiana since the day after her apprehension.

Lawmakers have argued Ozturk was locked up in Louisiana so that immigration officials could find a more favorable court. The Trump administration has maintained that there was not adequate space to house her in New England.

In a declaration earlier this month, Ozturk stated that her asthma had been triggered by overcrowding in a holding cell filled with “unsanitary, unsafe and inhumane” conditions.

“There is a mouse in our cell,” Ozturk said. “The boxes they provide for our clothing are very dirty, and they don’t give us adequate hygiene supplies.”

The ICE spokesperson has countered that “detainees have access to 24/7 medical services, including mental health care, dental care, chronic disease management, and emergency treatment.”

Mellissa Harper, director of ICE’s field office in New Orleans, also took exception to the delegation for allegedly arriving at the Basile facility “accompanied by ACLU staff and media who filmed ICE personnel without consent – jeopardizing their privacy and safety.”

“These tactics do nothing but endanger hardworking Americans,” she said. “We take seriously our responsibility to provide accurate information to Congress and the public. Our focus remains on delivering lawful, humane treatment to all detainees – including pregnant individuals – in full compliance with agency policy and federal law.”

In response to a Herald request for comment, the offices of Pressley, Markey and McGovern shared studies from the Office of Immigration Ombudsman and the ACLU of ICE detention facilities in Louisiana.

The Ombudsman study, stemming from an inspection of the Basile center in October 2022, found that the facility was out of compliance on 17 of 20 medical care standards.

The ACLU report, published last summer, gathered evidence over two years that “revealed physical and sexual abuse, medical neglect, deprivation of basic necessities, and lack of language access.”

“The Trump administration is using taxpayer money to detain people without charge and fund abuses that the (Department of Homeland Security’s) own inspector general has well documented,” Pressley, Markey and McGovern said in a joint statement shared with the Herald. “It’s unfortunate but unsurprising that the ICE and DHS want to keep the public in the dark.”

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