A federal judge ruled Friday that Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk must be released from detention as her immigration proceedings continue in court.
Ozturk was detained by federal authorities in March by officers in plainclothes after her student visa was revoked by the Trump administration, which accused her of supporting the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas. In court filings, the Department of Homeland Security pointed to an op-ed she co-wrote calling on Tufts to divest from companies tied to Israel and accusing Israel of committing “genocide” in its war against Hamas.
Judge William Sessions of the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont ruled Friday that Ozturk, a Turkish national, should be released from federal custody in Louisiana, and accused the government of not having sufficient reason to detain her.
“That literally is the case. There is no evidence here … absent consideration of the op-ed,” Sessions said at the hearing, per Politico. “Her continued detention cannot stand.”
The order is a victory for Ozturk, but she still faces further deportation hearings. Sessions did not place any travel restrictions on Ozturk for her release, saying during the hearing, “I don’t find that she poses any risk of flight.”
“From the moment a swarm of ICE agents abducted Ms. Öztürk in broad daylight, the government has spared no effort to evade accountability and deny her due process. Today, the court delivered reprieve and justice — for Ms. Ozturk, who should not have spent even one minute incarcerated, let alone the six weeks she has endured in deplorable conditions at an ICE detention center in Louisiana,” Mudassar Toppa, one of Ozturk’s attorneys and a staff attorney at CLEAR, said in a statement Friday.
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Ozturk is one of several foreign students who have had their visas revoked and are pending deportation after taking part in anti-Israel protests, many of which turned violent or featured conduct deemed antisemitic and sparked hundreds of legal complaints.
Another anti-Israel foreign national facing deportation is Mahmoud Khalil, who led protests where pamphlets written by Hamas were distributed. A federal judge ruled earlier this week that the government must defend the legal basis for seeking Khalil’s deportation.
