A US federal judge on Friday ordered the immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University doctoral student who was detained by ICE agents on the street in Somerville, Massachusetts, in March amid a crackdown on pro-Palestinian students on visas.
As with Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian protest leader at Columbia University who was freed last month after being arrested by federal agents, the judge ruling in her case said he was concerned by her detention.
As justification for her arrest, the federal government — which says it is acting to stop antisemitism on campuses — had cited an op-ed Ozturk co-authored that was critical of Tufts’ response to the war in Gaza.
“There is no evidence here as to the motivation, absent the consideration of the op-ed,” US District Judge William K. Sessions III said during her bail hearing. He added, “There is absolutely no evidence that she has engaged in violence, or advocated violence, she has no criminal record.”
In April, 27 Jewish groups filed an amicus brief expressing concern over Ozturk’s arrest, and Jewish students at Tufts said they did not support her detention. The government’s effort to deport her will proceed after she is freed.
Ozturk’s student visa was revoked by the State Department after she co-authored an article in the university newspaper, The Tufts Daily, criticizing the college’s handling of student anger around Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP Photo)
Video of the 30-year-old Ozturk’s March 25 arrest by masked agents on a sidewalk sparked outrage online, and added to concerns about freedom of speech and respect for due process under Trump.
Sessions echoed the concerns during Friday’s live-streamed custody hearing, at which Ozturk appeared remotely from a detention center in Louisiana.
“Continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens,” the judge said.
“Any one of them may now avoid exercising their First Amendment rights for fear of being whisked away to a detention center from their home,” he said.
“Her continued detention cannot stand,” Sessions said. “The court orders the government to release Miss Ozturk from custody immediately.”
The judge said he was not putting any travel restrictions on Ozturk and she was free to return to her home in Massachusetts.
Ozturk is one of a number of foreign students facing deportation over their anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian campus activities, and she still faces removal proceedings.
The decision to release her from custody was welcomed by Turkey but condemned by the White House.
In this image taken from security camera video, Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo)
Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc, in a post on X, called it a “positive development” and said it was “unacceptable for someone to be prosecuted because of their faith or their support for Palestine.”
Stephen Miller, a senior White House official, lashed out at the decision, saying “there’s a judicial coup in this country.”
“Foreigners in this country do not have a right to stay in this country if they support designated terrorist organizations like Hamas,” Miller told reporters.
“The secretary of state has the absolute authority… to revoke an immigration benefit or a visa and then to pursue a deportation,” he said.
Tufts University has publicly backed Ozturk, demanding her release so she can return to the school and complete her doctoral studies in child development.
Jessie Rossman, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which is among the groups representing Ozturk, welcomed her release.
“For 45 days, Rumeysa has been detained in Louisiana,” Rossman said. “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,” Rossman said, adding that the ACLU “won’t stop fighting until she is free for good.”
Trump has targeted prestigious universities that became the epicenter of the US student protest movement over the war in Gaza that was sparked by the October 7, 2023 Hamas assault on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people and saw another 251 taken hostage, stripping federal funds and directing immigration officers to deport foreign student demonstrators.
Critics argue that the campaign amounts to retribution and will have a chilling effect on free speech, while its supporters insist it is necessary to restore order to campuses and protect Jewish students.
