The case to free a Tufts PhD student and vocally pro-Palestine Turkish national after she was detained last week took a step forward in court Thursday, with the defense and government contesting the state jurisdiction of the case.

Adriana Lafaille, managing attorney of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said immigration officials did not disclose Ozturk’s location by the time the petition was filed despite efforts to uncover her whereabouts.

Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University graduate student, was arrested in Massachusetts and sent to the South Louisiana ICE processing center in the swamplands of Evangeline parish in Basile. Sending detainees to the cluster of remote immigration detention centers known as “Detention Alley” in the south is a common practice.