A Tufts University doctoral student was released from ICE custody on Friday after a federal judge in Vermont ordered her release on bail.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national, was detained in March after the Trump administration revoked her visa.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions slammed the government for ordering Ozturk’s release while their case against her is being heard, claiming that the government had not presented any evidence against her other than an op-ed she co-wrote in her student newspaper last year.
“I put the government on notice that they should immediately introduce any such evidence, and that was three weeks ago, and the government has only introduced the op-ed. I mean, this is literally the case. “There is no evidence here as to motivation without considering the op-ed,” he said during her bail hearing on Friday.
Ozturk’s legal team confirmed her release from the Louisiana detention facility to ABC News on Friday evening.
Ozturk testified remotely at her bail hearing from the Louisiana detention facility where she has been held since March 25, when ICE agents detained her near her home in Massachusetts.
Her attorneys claimed that the former Fulbright scholar is being targeted by the Trump administration because of a column she co-wrote in her student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to resolutions passed by the Tufts Community Union Senate.
These resolutions urged the university to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, apologize for University President Sunil Kumar’s statements, disclose its investments, and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel,” she wrote in the op-ed.
During Friday’s bail hearing, the attorney representing the government did not cross-examine Ozturk or present any witnesses who could testify to why she was a threat to foreign policy, as the administration has claimed.
Judge Sessions also highlighted several declarations submitted in Ozturk’s defense, which attested to her “peaceful and compassionate character.”
“I will just state my own observation: this is a woman who is completely dedicated to her academic career. “This is someone who probably has not got much else going on besides reaching out to other members of the community in a caring and compassionate manner,” the judge explained.
“There is no evidence that she has used or advocated violence. She has no criminal history. She has done nothing more than attend university and expand her contacts in the community in such a supportive manner,” he said.
In a statement to ABC News following her arrest last month, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson stated, “DHS and ICE investigations discovered Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.
A visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans constitutes grounds for visa revocation. “This is common sense security.”
The judge also stated beforehand that he is not willing to grant a stay of his order. Instead, he directed the government to submit a list of conditions that ICE would impose on her release.
“I would like to know immediately when she is released,” he told me.
Ozturk, wearing a hijab, glasses, and an orange jumpsuit, testified via Zoom about the humanitarian work she does as part of her child development studies. She also spoke about her involvement in school activities and projects.
Ozturk told the judge that she organized an event called “collective grieving for children experiencing war and conflicts” with the goal of assisting children “from Gaza to Israel, from Russia to Ukraine… from all parts of the world.”
“I think as people who are working in academia for child development and well-being, it is sometimes possible that we forget the emotional touch or grief extending to children that we do not necessarily work with,” she told me.
“But that does not mean that we do not grieve for other children, all of them are ours, from all parts of the world experiencing very sad events including war and conflict.”
Ozturk stated during the hearing that if she is released on bail, Tufts has offered her several housing options that she hopes to accept in order to complete her Ph.D.
Ozturk and her lawyers emphasized the urgent need for her release in sworn declarations and court hearings, citing at least 12 asthma attacks since her detention. They also accused the detention facility of being overcrowded and unsanitary, which they claimed could be affecting her health.
She was given a break during the hearing to take asthma medication after clutching her chest several times and struggling to speak. She testified that she had an asthma attack at an Atlanta airport while being transported to Louisiana.
“I was afraid and crying,” she said, adding that her daily maintenance inhaler was not initially given to her.
Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Ozturk’s visa had been revoked due to her pro-Palestinian activism.
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus — we are not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said. He added that the State Department could have deported more than 300 people.