The detention of Rümeysa Ozturk and her removal from Massachusetts to Louisiana raises serious questions about the government’s motives and assertions, according to a group of Bay State lawmakers who are demanding answers about her apprehension from Trump administration officials.

Ozturk, a fifth-year doctoral student studying at Tufts University on a student visa, was apprehended by masked immigration agents in Somerville on March 25. Her arrest came after her visa was revoked over alleged support for Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Defenders of the Turkish national say her speech would, under normal circumstances, be considered First Amendment protected speech.

Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren, and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley blasted Secretary of Homeland Security Kristy Noem and acting ICE Director Todd Lyons for the apprehension of Ozturk in a letter sent Tuesday demanding answers about her arrest and imprisonment in Louisiana.

Federal agents, they say, apprehended Öztürk without identifying themselves, “placed her in an unmarked vehicle, and moved her on a circuitous route through Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont, before placing her on a flight to Louisiana the following morning.”

“ICE asserts that no bed space was available anywhere in the region, raising serious questions about whether the agency is intentionally misrepresenting facts to justify strategic relocations,” the lawmakers write.

The trio wants to know why Ozturk was held in three different states, when ICE decided to move her south and who made the call, how much it cost, if moving her to Louisiana was done for political reasons and how ICE justifies sending people to a facility with a “documented history of abuse and inadequate legal access.”

“The transfer and detention of Ms. Öztürk — along with other students — raises urgent concerns about due process, transparency, and judicial forum shopping, threatening to undermine public trust in our immigration system. We urge your prompt and thorough response to these inquiries,” they write.

Warren, Markey and Pressley’s letter demands a response by May 6.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.