A federal judge on Friday mandated the immediate release of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral candidate at Tufts University. Öztürk had been held in immigration detention for six weeks. The judge deemed her arrest and continued detention unlawful and expressed significant constitutional concerns.
Judge William K. Sessions III of the U.S. District Court in Vermont concluded that Öztürk, who was detained in March after co-writing a pro-Palestinian opinion piece in her university’s newspaper, was targeted for her speech, violating her First Amendment and due process rights. The ruling strongly criticizes the Trump administration’s utilization of and against foreign students accused of disagreeing with U.S. foreign policy.
“There is no evidence here… absent consideration of the op-ed,” Sessions stated in court, indicating the government’s case relied entirely on her protected speech. “Her continued detention cannot stand.”
Öztürk, who appeared virtually from an ICE facility in Louisiana, was ordered released without travel restrictions, allowing her to return to her Massachusetts home.
The ruling was announced while White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was holding a briefing with reporters. When questioned about the decision, Leavitt implied Sessions had overstepped his authority. “We’ve made quite clear that lower level judges should not be dictating the foreign policy of the United States,” Leavitt said.
Later on Friday, Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff for policy, announced the Administration is “actively looking at” suspending habeas corpus, the right to challenge government detention, during invasion or insurrection. Habeas corpus has been suspended only four times since the Constitution’s ratification: during the Civil War, in South Carolina during Reconstruction to fight the Ku Klux Klan, in the Philippines during a 1905 insurrection, and in Hawaii after the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941. “The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in time of invasion,” Miller stated, shortly after a New York federal judge determined that the Trump administration had not provided evidence of a foreign invasion to justify using the Alien Enemies Act for deportations.
Sessions’ order in the Öztürk case arrives amid growing examination of President Donald Trump’s policy of revoking student visas based on perceived political threats. Since returning to office, to act aggressively against foreign nationals whom the Administration alleges are undermining American interests, particularly those critical of Israel and involved in campus protests against the war in Gaza.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who revoked Öztürk’s visa, stated her presence in the U.S. contradicted American foreign policy interests, suggesting she was aligned with groups hostile to Jewish students. A State Department memo referenced her co-authored op-ed and alleged connections to a student organization temporarily suspended by Tufts.
“We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses,” Rubio told reporters. “If we’ve given you a visa and then you decide to do that, we’re going to take it away.”
The administration has presented no evidence of criminal activity or direct support for a terrorist group, and immigration authorities have not charged her with any crime. However, the Department of Homeland Security has argued that visa holders like Öztürk can be expelled at the discretion of the executive branch.
Judge Sessions strongly opposed this view, cautioning that the government’s actions could discourage speech by “millions and millions” of noncitizens living, studying, and working in the United States.
Öztürk’s detention triggered national protest and widespread outrage after surrounding her on a Somerville, Mass., sidewalk in March and forcing her into an unmarked vehicle. Since then, she has been held over 1,300 miles away in Louisiana, where her lawyers report her health has significantly declined. They stated she has chronic asthma and has experienced repeated attacks in detention—including one during Friday’s hearing.
“I believe the world is a more beautiful and peaceful place when we listen to each other and allow different perspectives to be in the room,” Öztürk said in a statement read by her attorney in early April. “Writing is one of the most peaceful ways of addressing systemic inequality. Efforts to target me because of my op-ed in the Tufts Daily calling for the equal dignity and humanity of all people will not deter me from my commitment to advocate for the rights of youth and children.”
The ruling is the second time in recent weeks that a Vermont federal judge has ordered the release of an international student involved in the Trump administration’s visa crackdown. Last month, Judge Geoffrey Crawford ordered the release of Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian graduate student at Columbia University detained for participating in campus protests.
The administration has maintained that such revocations are within the executive branch’s authority. “We absolutely believe the President and the Department of Homeland Security are well within their legal rights to deport illegal immigrants,” Leavitt said Friday. “As for visa revocations, the Secretary of State has the right to do that as well. It is a privilege, not a right to come to this country on a visa.”
However, Öztürk, 30, was legally in the U.S. on a student visa when apprehended. Legal experts suggest her case could set a precedent regarding whether visa holders have constitutional rights in immigration custody and whether political expression can lawfully initiate removal proceedings.
While Judge Sessions’s ruling only concerns her release from detention, the Trump administration’s broader deportation case against Öztürk is expected to proceed in immigration court.