Supporters celebrate release of Tufts student from ICE custody, "she can come home"
Cheers erupted outside of Vermont federal court after a judge ruled that Tufts University grad student Rumeysa Ozturk must be released from immigration custody on bail, allowing her to return to Massachusetts.
"Ms. Ozturk is going to be walking out of Louisiana's detention center today," Jessie Rossman, ACLU of Massachusetts' legal director said. "She can come home, she come back to her community."
Ozturk was released from immigration custody hours after the judge's ruling.
Ozturk was arrested off a Somerville sidewalk on March 25 by a group of masked and plainclothes ICE agents. Her lawyer said her visa was revoked because of an op-ed she co-authored in the Tufts student newspaper about Palestine.
She was shuffled from Massachusetts to Vermont and ended up in Louisiana where judges tend to be stricter on immigration laws.
"She was punished for an op-ed to her employer asking them to meaningfully engage with the student body," SEIU 509 President Dave Foley said. "That is free speech. That is political expression."
"Absolutely no evidence"
A Vermont federal judge agreed citing First Amendment and due process concerns.
"There is absolutely no evidence that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence... She has no criminal record. She has done nothing other than essentially attend her university and expand her contacts within the community in such a supportive way," said U.S. District Court Judge Williams Sessions
Ozturk's lawyers said she will be on the first flight back to Massachusetts, a relief for her friends and co-workers at Tufts University.
"She's got friends here who are ready to welcome her home and excited to continue to advocate for her and protect her," Foley said.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey applauded the judge's ruling.
"This court order confirms what we already knew - Rumeysa Ozturk's detention was never about public safety," Healey said in a statement. "It was part of the Trump Administration's campaign to silence those who disagree with them."
Ozturk is due back in court in Vermont on May 22.