US Judge Orders Turkish Student Released From Immigration Custody

A Tufts University student from Turkey who was held for more than six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school's response to Israel's war in Gaza was released from custody on May 9 after a federal judge granted her bail.

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BURLINGTON, Vermont —

US District Judge William Sessions, during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, ordered the immediate release of Ms. Rumeysa Ozturk, who is at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Republican President Donald Trump's campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on US campuses.

The judge said Ms. Ozturk, whose arrest in Massachusetts in March was captured in a viral video, had raised a substantial claim that the sole reason she was being detained was "simply and purely the expression that she made or shared in the op-ed in violation of her First Amendment rights".

"Her continued detention potentially chills the speech of millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens," Judge Sessions said. "Any one of them may now avoid exercising their First Amendment rights for fear of being whisked away to a detention center."

Ms. Ozturk, who appeared before the judge virtually from the Louisiana detention facility, could be seen hugging one of her attorneys after the judge ordered her release from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) custody.

She was released hours later, her legal team said.

The judge will take up arguments in her underlying lawsuit at a later hearing.