The Turkish student who was detained by ICE in March for allegedly supporting Hamas has been ordered released by a federal judge in Vermont. 

For weeks, Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, has been locked up at a Louisiana detention center run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after her student visa was revoked with no warning.

Ozturk, 30, was released Friday on order of U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Burlington, allowing her to return to her studies.

Judge Sessions released Ozturk pending a final decision on her claim that she´s been illegally detained following an op-ed she co-wrote last year that criticized the school’s response to Israel´s war in Gaza.

Details of her release and travel plans were not immediately available, and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement database still listed her as detained Friday afternoon in Louisiana, where her immigration proceedings will continue. 

But her supporters cheered the decision, punctuating a news conference held by her attorneys with chants of ‘She is free!’

‘What we heard from the court today is what we have been saying for weeks, and what courts have continued to repeat up and down through the litigation of this case thus far,’ Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, told reporters. 

‘There´s absolutely no evidence that justifies detaining Ozturk for a single day, let alone the six and a half weeks that she has been detained, because she wrote a single op-ed in her student newspaper exercising her First Amendment right to express an opinion.’

Rumeysa Ozturk, he Turkish student who was detained by ICE in March for allegedly supporting Hamas, has been ordered released by a federal judge in Vermont

Rumeysa Ozturk, he Turkish student who was detained by ICE in March for allegedly supporting Hamas, has been ordered released by a federal judge in Vermont

For weeks, Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts , has been locked up at a Louisiana detention center run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after her student visa was revoked with no warning, drawing several protests from leftists

For weeks, Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University in Massachusetts , has been locked up at a Louisiana detention center run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after her student visa was revoked with no warning, drawing several protests from leftists 

Appearing by video for her bail hearing, Ozturk, 30, detailed her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate degree focusing on children and social media while appearing remotely at her bail hearing from the Louisiana center. 

She and her lawyer hugged after hearing the judge’s decision.

‘Completing my Ph.D. is very important to me,’ she testified. She had been on track to finish her work in December when she was arrested.

Ozturk was to be released on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions, Sessions said. 

He said she is not a danger to the community or a flight risk, but that he might amend his release order to consider any specific conditions by ICE in consultation with her lawyers.

Sessions said the government had offered no evidence about why Ozturk was arrested other than the op-ed.

‘This is a woman who is just totally committed to her academic career,’ Sessions said. 

‘This is someone who probably doesn’t have a whole lot of other things going on other than reaching out to other members of the community in a caring and compassionate way.’

A message seeking comment was emailed Friday afternoon to the U.S. Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review.

Details of her release and travel plans were not immediately available, and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement database still listed her as detained Friday afternoon in Louisiana, where her immigration proceedings will continue

Details of her release and travel plans were not immediately available, and an Immigration and Customs Enforcement database still listed her as detained Friday afternoon in Louisiana, where her immigration proceedings will continue

But her supporters cheered the decision, punctuating a news conference held by her attorneys with chants of 'She is free!'

But her supporters cheered the decision, punctuating a news conference held by her attorneys with chants of ‘She is free!’

Sessions told Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Drescher he wants to know immediately when she is released.

Sessions said Ozturk raised serious concerns about her First Amendment and due process rights, as well as her health. 

She testified Friday that she has had 12 asthma attacks since her detention, starting with a severe one at the Atlanta airport.

‘I was afraid, and I was crying,’ she said.

Immigration officials surrounded Ozturk in Massachusetts on March 25 and drove her to New Hampshire and Vermont before putting her on a plane to the Basile, Louisiana detention center, which has been criticized for its allegedly poor conditions and possible abuse toward female inmates.

Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, her lawyers said.

Ozturk´s lawyers first filed a petition on her behalf in Massachusetts, but they did not know where she was and were unable to speak to her until more than 24 hours after she was detained. 

A Massachusetts judge later transferred the case to Vermont.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Ozturk and other student activists had their visas taken away because of their alleged support for Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Ozturk and other student activists had their visas taken away because of their alleged support for Hamas, a US-designated terrorist group

Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year criticizing the university´s response to student activists demanding that Tufts ‘acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,’ disclose its investments and divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Ozturk said Friday that if she is released, Tufts would offer her housing and her lawyers and friends would drive her to future court hearings.

‘I will follow all the rules,’ she said.

A State Department memo said Ozturk´s visa was revoked following an assessment that her actions ‘`may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization´ including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.’

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found that Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist group.

‘When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?’ said Mahsa Khanbabai, one of Ozturk´s attorneys. 

‘I am thankful that the courts have been ruling in favor of detained political prisoners, like Rumeysa.’

When she was detained, Ozturk had been on her to meet her friends for iftar, a meal to break her Ramadan fast.

Ozturk was among those who were vehemently against Israel's war and has said she believes she was targeted by the State Department for her speech on the topic

Ozturk was among those who were vehemently against Israel’s war and has said she believes she was targeted by the State Department for her speech on the topic

Pictured: At an April 5 protest in Washington D.C., someone holds a sign demanding the release of Ozturk

Pictured: At an April 5 protest in Washington D.C., someone holds a sign demanding the release of Ozturk

‘I felt very scared and concerned as the men surrounded me and grabbed my phone from me,’ Ozurk said in a statement, according to CBS.

She was then accused of ‘engaging in activities in support of Hamas,’ the militant Palestinian group that runs the Gaza strip and attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. 

More than 1,200 people, mostly Israeli civilians, were killed in a disturbingly brutal surprise assault. Hamas, recognized by the US government as a terrorist group, has been at war with Israel ever since.

Many college students in the US have been critical of Israel’s war in Gaza, which led to the widespread protests last year on campuses all throughout the country.

Over 50,000 Palestinians have died as a result of Israel’s bombing campaign throughout Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Ozturk was among those who were vehemently against Israel’s war and has said she believes she was targeted by the State Department for her speech. Likewise, her lawyers argue her First Amendment rights were violated.

She co-authored an op-ed last March on the war in The Tufts Daily, the college’s student newspaper. 

The piece criticized the university’s response to its community union Senate passing resolutions demanding that Tufts ‘acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,’ disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.

It said: ‘These resolutions were the product of meaningful debate by the Senate and represent a sincere effort to hold Israel accountable for clear violations of international law.’

In a statement at the time of her arrest, ICE explained that its investigation ‘found 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 is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.’

Shortly after her arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said her visa had been taken away.

Rubio has maintained that Ozturk and the other student activists that engaged in anti-Israel protests were detained because they lied on their visa applications and did not mention their alleged support for Hamas.

‘If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States, and with that visa participate in that sort of activity, we’re going to take away your visa,’ he said.

However, it came out in mid-April that the State Department found no evidence of Ozturk being linked to Hamas or antisemitism.

That was according to a leaked internal memo described to The Washington Post. The memo reportedly asserted that Rubio did not have the authority to revoke Ozturk’s visa. 

Ozturk alleged once she was put in the Louisiana facility, she was locked up inside for her first week and had limited access to food and supplies for two weeks.

‘When they do the inmate count we are threatened to not leave our beds or we will lose privileges, which means that we are often stuck waiting in our beds for hours,’ she said.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment. 

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