A federal judge in Vermont ordered on Friday that Rumeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University student detained by immigration agents in March, is released from ice custody.
“Öztürk is free to go back to her home in Massachusetts. She is also free to travel to Massachusetts and Vermont, as I find better, and I will not put a travel restriction on her, because, frankly, I don’t think she poses any flight risk,” said Judge William K. Sessions III.
The government was sentenced to free it immediately, awaiting new procedures for merits from its habeas petition, the judge said.
Öztürk appeared virtually, with his lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai, from the Louisiana South Ice Processing Center.
Khanbabai said he was “relieved and ecstatic” for the news.
“Unfortunately, it’s 45 days later. She was arrested all these days for simply writing an article that asked for human rights and dignity for people in Palestine,” she said in a statement. “When speaking against oppression became a crime? When did you speak out against genocide has become something to be arrested?”
Öztürk was arrested on the streets of a Boston suburb on March 25. The video of his arrest showed police from the US internal security department and immigration authorities around him on a sidewalk and grabbing his wrists. She shouted when she was taken to a nearby SUV.
The Trump government revoked the Öztürk student visa at the end of March, based on an appraisal from the internal security department and immigration and customs application that it “has been involved in associations that” can undermine US foreign policy, creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization “” “”
He included it co-writing an article “that found a common cause with an organization that was later banned temporarily from the campus, Bureau of Consular Affairs approved the revocation, effectively immediately,” according to a state department memorandum.
Öztürk wrote an article last year in his student newspaper that criticized the tuft response to the war in Gaza.
Earlier in his bail, Öztürk hearing There was an asthma attack.
She witnessed that the frequency, duration and intensity of her asthma attacks have increased since her denture.
She told the judge that this affected her negatively.
Turkey’s doctoral student had already detailed her attacks on a statement to the court. Lawyer Jessie Rossman, who personally appeared to the hearing, told the judge that her client had the most attacks beyond the eight documented in the statement.
Rossman said he was “relieved” that his client will soon be able to return to Massachusetts.
“For 45 days, Rümeysa was arrested in Louisiana – more than 1300 miles from her friends, her community and her lawyers. During this time she suffered regular and scalvating asthma attacks,” she said in a statement. “And at the same time, the government was unable to produce any justification for its detention.”
During his testimony, Öztürk said he was diagnosed with asthma in 2023 in his hometown of Türkiye and suffered attacks before his denture.
During an episode, she said she experiences anxiety, exhaustion, chest tightness and cough. They are usually caused by environmental triggers and stress.
Tufts University Medical Center helped her maintain her asthma, she said, noting that she has two inhalers, one for daily maintenance and one she uses when she has an attack.
Öztürk seemed to be upset when she witnessed an attack at Atlanta airport after she was arrested. She was seen by putting her hands on her chest and breathing deep.
“I was afraid and cried,” she told the court about the Atlanta incident.
After his testimony, Dr. Jessica McCannon, who has experience in asthma treatment, was called to the booth. While McCannon was talking, Öztürk began to cough uncontellably and appeared without breath. Lawyer Khanbabai, who was with Öztürk, said her client was having an asthma attack.
Öztürk ran out of the room to pick up his inhaler.