A federal judge in Vermont on Friday ordered the immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk, some six weeks after she was suddenly arrested near her home in Massachusetts and then detained at an ICE facility in Louisiana.
“Ozturk is free to return to her home in Massachusetts,” said U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III. “She’s also free to travel to Massachusetts and Vermont as she sees fit, and I am not going to put a travel restriction on her, because, frankly, I don’t find that she poses any risk of flight.”
Session’s decision will allow Ozturk, a Turkish PhD candidate at Tufts University, to return to her studies pending further proceedings on the merits of her habeas petition.
“Completing my PhD is very important to me,” Ozturk testified during a bail hearing on Friday. She added that she still hoped to finish her doctoral degree focusing on children and social media, and that she was on track to do so prior to her arrest in the spring.
On March 25, Ozturk was approached by a group of immigration authorities and officers with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security while she strolled the streets of a Boston-area suburb near her off-campus apartment. Video of her arrest shows Ozturk panic as agents grab her hands and force her into a nearby SUV.
The arrest came a year after she penned an op-ed for her student newspaper criticizing Tufts’ response to the war in Gaza, cited by the Trump administration as sufficient reason to revoke her student visa.
Though she was never charged with any crime, Ozturk was accused of engaging in activities in support of Hamas, including writings “that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus, the Bureau of Consular Affairs approved revocation, effectively immediately,” according to a State Department memo obtained by NBC.
It further alleged that she “had been involved in associations that ‘may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization.’”
Ozturk’s arrest, one of many involving students who have participated in protests, sparked fierce backlash, with supporters calling her detainment a violation of her rights to free speech and due process.
Ozturk said she has suffered a series of asthma attacks since her arrest, the first of which came at the Atlanta airport while she was waiting to be taken to Louisiana. The attack was severe, she said, and she did not have all her medications.
“I was afraid, and I was crying,” she recalled during the bail hearing on Friday.
Jessie Rossman, a lawyer representing Ozturk, told the Boston Globe that the Trump administration has still not provided any reason for her arrest and detainment outside of her op-ed.
“The clear message that the government is sending to everyone who is watching is that you can be detained thousands of miles from your home for more than six weeks for writing a single student newspaper article,” Rossman said.
Acting U.S. Attorney for Vermont Michael Drescher said Ozturk will continue to be subject to removal proceedings.
With News Wire Services
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