A federal judge in Vermont has ordered that Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University doctoral student and Turkish national, be immediately released from federal custody. Judge William K. Sessions' ruling Friday comes more than six weeks after masked immigration agents picked her up on a suburban Boston street as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on pro-Palestinian student activists.
In his ruling, Judge Sessions of the U.S. District Court for Vermont, said that her arrest and detention appeared likely to have been carried out solely in retaliation for an op-ed she wrote in a campus newspaper criticizing her school leaders' response to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
"I suggested to the government that they produce any additional information which would suggest that she posed a substantial risk," Sessions said. "And that was three weeks ago, and there has been no evidence introduced by the government other than the op-ed. That literally is the case. There is no evidence here."
Sessions added: "The court finds that Ms. Öztürk has raised a substantial claim of a constitutional violation."
He ordered her immediate release, rejecting, for now, the government's request that he place conditions on her freedom. Sessions called Öztürk's experience "a traumatic incident."
Ozturk's release is the latest legal setback for the Trump administration as it seeks to carry out the president's promise to deport noncitizens who've engaged in what the White House calls antisemitic campus activism. Last week, another federal judge ordered the government to release Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student protest leader at Columbia University who it is also trying to deport, despite his status as a lawful permanent resident.
Like Mahdawi, Öztürk still faces possible deportation. But Friday's ruling means she won't be locked up while she fights the government's attempt to revoke her legal status.
"We are relieved and ecstatic that she has been ordered released," her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, said in a statement. "Unfortunately, it is 45 days too late. She has been imprisoned all these days for simply writing an op-ed that called for human rights and dignity for the people in Palestine. When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?"
Öztürk, sitting beside Khanbabai, appeared at the hearing via zoom from the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center. She testified about how her time there, living in an overcrowded mouse-infested cell with 23 other women, has worsened her chronic asthma problem. At one point during the hearing, she said she was suffering an asthma attack and temporarily left the room.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to her ordered release. But last week, Tricia McLaughlin, the department's Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, said, "we will continue to fight for the arrest, detention and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country."
Öztürk's fight to be released from detention has become one of the highest profile cases over whether the government can arrest and deport noncitizens that the government believes threaten U.S. foreign policy interests.
After her arrest, the Trump administration accused Öztürk of engaging in "activities in support of Hamas," and, according to court papers, the Department of Homeland Security determined that she had been involved in associations that "may undermine U.S foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students."
Advocates, however, say Öztürk and others detained by the administration are being targeted for exercising their free speech. Her lawyers filed a lawsuit challenging her arrest and detention as unconstitutional retaliation for her activism, saying they were "designed to punish her speech and chill the speech of others."
To date, the government has produced no evidence supporting its accusations against Öztürk other than a 2024 op-ed she co-wrote for the Tufts campus newspaper. In it, she criticized school administrators for not doing more to condemn Israel's war in Gaza, which she called a "plausible genocide."
She was arrested on March 25 by plainclothes ICE agents who surrounded her as she walked to dinner with friends. Four days earlier, the State Department had quietly canceled her student visa, according to court filings. Agents quickly drove her from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and Vermont, before flying her the next day to Louisiana.
Judge Sessions has scheduled arguments for next week in his Burlington, Vermont courtroom to consider the constitutional issues in the case.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to her ordered release. But last week, Tricia McLaughlin, the department's Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, said, "we will continue to fight for the arrest, detention and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country."
Ozturk's fight to be released from detention has become one of the highest profile cases over whether the government can arrest and deport noncitizens for activities Secretary of State Marco Rubio describes as threatening the country's "national security or [compromising] a compelling foreign policy interest."
After her arrest, the Trump administration accused Ozturk of engaging in "activities in support of Hamas," and, according to court papers, the Department of Homeland Security determined that she had been involved in associations that "may undermine U.S foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students."
Advocates, however, say Ozturk and others detained by the administration are being targeted for exercising their free speech. Her lawyers filed a lawsuit challenging her arrest and detention as unconstitutional retaliation for her activism, saying they were "designed to punish her speech and chill the speech of others."
To date, the government has produced no evidence supporting its accusations against Ozturk other than a 2024 op-ed she co-wrote for the Tufts campus newspaper. In it, she criticized school administrators for not doing more to condemn Israel's war in Gaza, which she called a "plausible genocide."
She was arrested on March 25 as she walked to dinner with friends, four days after the State Department had quietly canceled her student visa, according to court filings. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents quickly drove her from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and Vermont, before flying her the next day to a detention center in Louisiana, where she's been held ever since. Her lawyers have been urgently trying to have her released, saying she's been held with about two dozen other women in a damp, mouse-infested cell that has worsened Ozturk's asthma.
Judge Sessions has scheduled arguments for next week in his Burlington courtroom to consider the constitutional issues in the case.
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