Judge orders release of Tufts student detained by U.S. immigration for op-ed on Gaza

Thomson Reuters

· Posted: May 09, 2025 3:25 PM EDT | Last Updated: 15 minutes ago

A national justice ordered the Trump medication connected Friday to merchandise a Tufts University pupil from Turkey who has been held for implicit six weeks successful a Louisiana migration detention installation aft she co-wrote an sentiment portion criticizing her school's effect to Israel's warfare successful Gaza.

U.S. District Judge William Sessions during a proceeding successful Burlington, Vt., granted bail to Rumeysa Ozturk, who is astatine the centre of 1 of the highest-profile cases to look from U.S. President Donald Trump's campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists connected American campuses.

The justice made the ruling soon aft a national appeals court rejected the Trump administration's bid to re-detain Columbia University pupil Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian field activistic who a antithetic justice successful Vermont ordered released last week aft migration authorities arrested him arsenic well.

Ozturk's arrest connected March 25 by masked, plainclothes instrumentality enforcement officers connected a thoroughfare successful the Boston suburb of Somerville, Mass., adjacent her location was captured successful a viral video and occurred aft the U.S. Department of State revoked her pupil visa.

The sole ground authorities person provided for revoking her visa was an sentiment portion she co-authored in Tufts' pupil paper criticizing the school's effect to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide."

Her lawyers astatine the American Civil Liberties Union had argued that her apprehension and detention were unlawfully designed to punish her for code protected by the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment and to chill the code of others.

WATCH | Ozturk's arrest: 

The 30-year-old PhD pupil and Fulbright student was moved to a detention centre successful Basile, La., adjacent though her lawyer filed a suit successful Massachusetts the time she was arrested and a justice determination barred her from being moved retired of the authorities without 48 hours' notice.

By the clip that bid came down, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already taken her to Vermont, wherever she was held concisely earlier being flown to Louisiana.

'Significant law concerns'

Rather than disregard her lawsuit arsenic the medication wanted, a Massachusetts justice transferred the lawsuit to Vermont, saying it could beryllium decently heard there.

Sessions, an appointee of Democratic President Barack Obama, past ordered Ozturk transferred to Vermont truthful she could beryllium disposable arsenic helium weighed ordering her merchandise and considered the "significant law concerns" she had raised.

A national appeals tribunal connected Wednesday ordered her transferred to Vermont by May 14, but Sessions opted to proceed with a antecedently scheduled bail proceeding to spell guardant connected Friday and let Ozturk to look remotely aft her lawyers said she was suffering from worsening asthma attacks portion successful custody.

She suffered 1 specified asthma onslaught successful the mediate of Friday's hearing. She told the justice she had suffered astir a twelve portion successful custody, much than astatine immoderate clip successful the past 2 years, which she blamed connected the "challenging" conditions of her confinement successful an overly packed abstraction with mediocre aerial ventilation.

"The duration and frequence person accrued due to the fact that of some the changeless triggers surrounding maine and besides the stressful situation that I americium surviving successful close now," she said.