BOSTON >> Lawyers for a Tufts University doctoral student from Turkey who was seized by immigration officials off a street near Boston argued in federal court Thursday that she should be returned to Massachusetts, while the U.S. government insisted it did nothing wrong in moving her to a detention center in Louisiana.

Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was taken into custody as she walked along a suburban street March 25. After being transported to New Hampshire and then Vermont, she was put on a plane the next day and moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Basile, Louisiana.

“She was grabbed by federal agents in front of her home and taken over the course of several hours to Vermont without any way to contact counsel or counsel to contact her and with her location for period 22 hours being undisclosed to the Department of Justice attorneys in this case,” Adriana Lafaille, one of her attorneys, told the court.

Ozturk’s lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Denise Casper to order that she be immediately returned to Massachusetts and released from custody. If Ozturk isn’t returned to Massachusetts, Lafaille added, she should be taken to Vermont.

Mark Sauter, a Justice Department lawyer, argued that ICE had a plan for her transport before she was detained and only moved her to Louisiana because there was no bed space for female immigration detainees in New England.

“There was no attempt to manipulate the jurisdiction,” Sauter told the court.

The U.S. attorneys have argued the case should go before an immigration judge. Ozturk had been moved to Vermont by the time Casper in Boston had ordered authorities to keep her in Massachusetts, they said.

Ozturk’s lawyers said at the time they filed the petition, they had no way of knowing where she was. They have said her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.