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The judge in Vermont granted bail to Rumeysa Öztürk on Friday, May 9. US District Judge William Sessions said the federal government had proven no basis for detaining Öztürk other than her student newspaper op-ed, criticizing the university's response to Israel's occupation of Gaza.
The 30-year-old was detained by six masked, plainclothes officers while walking in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, March 25.
"Öztürk is free to return to her home in Massachusetts," Sessions said, according to NBC News. "She's also free to travel to Massachusetts and Vermont as she sees fit, and I am not going to put a travel restriction on her, because, frankly, I don't find that she poses any risk of flight."
Video showed the agents grabbing Öztürk by her wrists, leading her into an SUV as she screamed. She was first held in ICE custody in Vermont before she was transferred to a detention center in southern Louisiana.
The court ordered Öztürk's return to Vermont by Wednesday, May 14, pending further hearings on the legality of her detention.
"There is absolutely no evidence that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence," Sessions said, according to The Hill. "She has no criminal record. She has done nothing other than essentially attend her university and expand her contacts within the community in such a supportive way."
Öztürk appeared virtually from the ICE detention center. Wearing an orange jumpsuit, Öztürk appeared to be in tears at times and took notes throughout the three-hour hearing.
The Turkish national said her health has deteriorated in ICE custody, suffering a dozen asthma attacks since her arrest.
"I definitely think that stress and anxiety and the physical tiredness, hunger because of the whole process of being carried across different places really increased my stress, and I think really increased my asthma," she said.
Öztürk also said a nurse at the ICE detention center forcefully removed her hijab.
"The nurse told me that 'you need to take that thing off your head,'" she told the court.
Öztürk has studied child development at Tufts under an F-1 visa. She was previously awarded a Fulbright scholarship and hasn't been charged with any crime.
Her arrest came almost a year to the date that she co-authored an op-ed in "The Tufts Daily" that was critical of the Medford, MA, college's ties to Israel.
"The "systemic changes" that the collective voice of the student body is calling for are for the university to end its complicity with Israel insofar as it is oppressing the Palestinian people and denying their right to self-determination — a right that is guaranteed by international law," the op-ed said. "These strong lobbying tools are all the more urgent now given the order by the International Court of Justice confirming that the Palestinian people of Gaza's rights under the Genocide Convention are under a "plausible" risk of being breached."
The State Department argued that the op-ed "found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus." A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Öztürk's activities posed "potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling US foreign policy interest."
The federal government didn't cross-examine Öztürk and reiterated that revoking visas falls within executive discretion. The court disagreed, allowing her habeas corpus case to move forward.
The American Civil Liberties Union called the ruling overdue but necessary.
"For 45 days, Rümeysa has been detained in Louisiana — over 1300 miles from her friends, her community, and her lawyers," said Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts. "During that time, she has suffered regular and escalating asthma attacks. And at the same time, the government has failed to produce any justification for her detention. We are so relieved that Rümeysa will soon be back in Massachusetts, and won't stop fighting until she is free for good."
Öztürk's lawyers and supporters described her arrest as retaliation for political speech and a violation of the First Amendment.
"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," said attorney Mahsa Khanbabai. "When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?"
Öztürk's case is part of a wave of student visa revocations by the Trump administration, especially targeting international students involved in pro-Palestinian activism.
Days before Öztürk's detainment, Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was also arrested. The green card holder faces possible deportation after he was a vocal participant in campus protests supporting Palestine.
Another Vermont court case has also drawn national attention.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student who also took part in protests at Columbia, was arrested during an April interview about finalizing his US citizenship. The 34-year-old was imprisoned for 16 days before he was released after a court found that the Trump administration targeted him to suppress speech it disagrees with, The Guardian reported.
According to the Association of International Educators, more than 1,600 student visas have been revoked as of Wednesday, May 7.
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