A federal judge in Vermont has ordered the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University graduate student who was arrested by masked federal agents in March.
U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III ruled Friday that Ozturk presents “absolutely” no danger to the community, nor does she pose a flight risk, and that her continued detention could severely impact both her academic pursuits and her health.
Ozturk, a 34-year-old Turkish national with a student visa, suffers from asthma that she says has dramatically worsened during her six-week-long detention at an immigration facility in Louisiana.
Sessions ordered the federal government to immediately release her from the detention facility. He also said she will be allowed to return to Massachusetts, where she attends college, and can travel the country freely, so long as she shows up for all of her Vermont court hearings.
Ozturk has been detained since March 25, when armed agents plucked her off a street outside of Boston and stuffed her into an unmarked car. The agents then drove her to Vermont and held her there overnight before transferring her south.
The case challenging her arrest is playing out in Vermont because that’s where she was when her attorneys filed a petition seeking her release.
Sessions previously ordered that Ozturk be returned to Vermont by May 1, but federal prosecutors appealed his decision. On Wednesday, a federal appellate court affirmed the judge’s ruling and said the government must return Ozturk by May 14.
She attended Friday’s hearing remotely wearing an orange jumpsuit. Her attorneys said they will help her return to Massachusetts this weekend.
Ozturk is among a handful of U.S. college students who the Trump administration has arrested and tried to deport as part of a purported effort to crack down on antisemitism. Federal officials have accused the students of voicing opinions and having associations that could undermine U.S. foreign policy. Advocates dispute those characterizations and say the students have been targeted in retaliation for lawfully protected speech.
It is the second time in two weeks that a Vermont judge has rejected the federal government’s attempts to keep a student locked up indefinitely. Last month, a judge ordered the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student from White River Junction who was arrested during a naturalization interview.
On Thursday, Mahdawi joined state officials and nonprofit leaders at the Vermont Statehouse to announce the launch of a new legal defense fund for immigrants. Unlike in criminal cases, the federal government is not obligated to provide lawyers in civil deportation proceedings, and some defendants never speak with an attorney before they’re kicked out of the country.
The fund aims to raise $1 million to support Vermont nonprofits that provide free legal assistance to immigrants.
Though freed, both Mahdawi and Ozturk still remain in limbo, as the federal government is expected to continue deportation proceedings against them in Louisiana.
This post will be updated.