Judge Orders That Tufts Student Targeted by Trump Be Freed "Immediately"
Doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk's release on bail follows a similar ruling freeing Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi.
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Detained Tufts doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk must be released on bail, a federal judge in Vermont ruled on Friday morning.
“Her continued detention chills the speech of the millions and millions of people who are not citizens,” U.S. District Judge William K. Sessions III said in a Vermont court, adding that her detention “cannot stand.”
Beyond her First Amendment challenge, Öztürk’s asthma loomed large in the decision in immigration detention. Öztürk suffered an asthma attack mid-hearing, requiring her to excuse herself to go to the bathroom.
Sessions ordered the government to release Öztürk “immediately.”
Update: After his ruling from the bench, Sessions issued this written order.
Possible Action Item: Showing Up in Court
When Öztürk’s case went to a federal appellate court in New York, the American Civil Liberties Union organized a rally outside the courthouse. Images from those protests became part of national news coverage, showing her case is being watched.
On March 25, Öztürk was arrested by six heavily armed, plainclothes officers on the street near her home in Massachusetts. They drove her away in an unmarked car and transported her to New Hampshire and Vermont, before flying her the next day to Louisiana. Öztürk testified today that the arrest triggered her asthma, which previously had been well controlled.
Asked by her lawyer about whether she was afraid, Öztürk replied: “I was afraid, and I was crying.”
Once she got medical attention, a nurse told her “take that thing off my head,” Öztürk said, gesturing to her hijab.
Öztürk was the first of four witnesses who testified today. The others were Dr. Jessica McCannon, who diagnosed her asthma; Dr. Sarah Johnson, her primary academic advisor, and Becky Penberthy, who offered to supervise Öztürk upon her release for the Burlington Community Justice Center.
Earlier this week, Öztürk won an appeal allowing her habeas proceedings to take place reasonably close to her home, defeating what legal experts have compared to a jurisdictional “shell game.”
In a bigger victory today, Sessions found she would likely succeed on multiple constitutional claims.
“These are very substantial claims of First Amendment and due process violations,” the judge said.
Öztürk wore an orange jumpsuit from an immigration facility in Louisiana when the judge handed down the ruling.
Öztürk’s ordeal follows the publication of an editorial that she co-authored in a Tufts newspaper on March 26, 2024, criticizing the university’s response to resolutions passed by students. She was one of four students who wrote the opinion piece, which was cited by the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in justifying her deportation.
But Sessions found that editorial was the only evidence the government brought to justify her detention.
"That literally is the case,” he said. “There is no evidence here as to the motivation absent the consideration of the op-ed."
Appearing virtually with her attorney from an immigration facility in Louisiana, Öztürk waived her right to attend in person for the bail proceedings in Burlington, Vt., in order to resolve her application more quickly.
Judge Sessions noted that Öztürk had eight asthma attacks since her detention, and Öztürk testified about her attacks becoming more frequent and severe since her arrest because of the exposure to triggers like chemicals, detergents, and stress.
After one attack, Öztürk testified that a nurse told her that she needed to “take the thing off my head," gesturing to her hijab.
Öztürk’s victory follows a similar ruling late last month granting bail to Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, which compared the Trump administration’s retaliation against student protesters to the Red Scare.
On April 30, U.S. District Judge Geoffrey W. Crawford wrote in that ruling: “Legal residents not charged with crimes or misconduct are being arrested and threatened with deportation for stating their views on the political issues of the day. Our nation has seen times like this before, especially during the Red Scare and Palmer Raids of 1919-1920 that led to the deportation of hundreds of people suspected of anarchist or communist views.”
The rulings free Öztürk and Mahdawi while their habeas cases remain pending. The Second Circuit unanimously denied the Trump administration’s bid to pause Mahdawi’s release in a ruling issued in the middle of Öztürk’s hearing.