A federal judge in Vermont ordered Friday that a doctoral student from the University of Tufts was released on bail of the ICE custody after the Trump administration revoked its visa.
The United States District Judge, William Sessions, criticized the Government by ordering Rumeysa Ozturb, a Turkish notary, released while his case against his profits, saying that the Government had not produced any evidence against it, apart from an opinion article, co -written in its student newspaper last year.
“I put the government in warning that this evidence should immediately introduce, and that was three weeks ago, and there has been no evidence that it has been introduced by the government that is not the opinion article. I mean that it is literally the case. There is no evidence here about the absent motivation of the consideration of the OP-Ed,” he said.
Ozturb testified remotely at his bail audience of the detention center in Louisiana, where they have delayed it since ICE agents arrested her near her home in Massachusetts on March 25.
His lawyers argued that Fulbright’s former scholarly is being the target of the Trump administration due to a column that co -written in his student newspaper that criticizes the university’s response to the resolutions approved by the Senate of the Community Union of Tufts.
These resolutions asked the University to recognize the Palestinian genocide, apologize for the statements of the president of the University, Sunil Kumar, reveal their investments and disintegrate companies with direct or indirect links with Israel, “he wrote in the opinion article.
The lawyer who represents the government did not interrogate Ozurck during Friday’s bail audience, nor offered any witness that he could attest to why it was a threat to foreign policy, as the administration claimed.
Rumeysa Ozturb, a Turkish doctoral student at the University of Tufts in Somerville, Massachusetts, poses in a photograph without date provided by his family and obtained by Reuters on March 29, 2025.
Courtesy of the Oz family through Reuters
Judge Sessions also highlighted several of the statements that were filed in defense of OzTurb, witnessing his “peaceful and compassionate character.”
“I will simply express my own observation and that this is a woman who is totally committed to her academic career. This is someone who probably does not have many other things that are happening more than reaching other members of the community in an attentive and compassionate way,” said the judge.
“There is absolutely no evidence that he has participated in violence or violence defended. He has no criminal record. He has done nothing more than essentially attend his university and expand his contacts within the community in such a solidarity way,” he said.
In a statement to ABC News issued after its arrest last month, a spokesman for the National Security Department said: “DHS and ICE investigations found OzTurck participating in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that ables the organization of Americans who enjoy Americans. A visa is a privilege is not a right.
The judge also said preventively that he is not open to granting a suspension of his order. Instead, he ordered the Government to present a set of conditions that Ice would impose to its release.
“I would like to know immediately when it is released,” he said.
Using a hijab, glasses and an orange monkey, Ozturb testified through Zoom about humanitarian work in which he participates as part of his studies in child development. He also testified about his participation in school groups and projects.
OzTurb told the judge that he organized an event that called “collective duel for children who experienced war and conflicts” that aimed to help children “from Gaza to Israel, from Russia to Ukraine … from all over the world.”
“I think, as people who work in the Academy for the development and well -being of children, sometimes we may forget the emotional touch or pain that extends to the children with whom we do not necessarily work,” he said. “But that does not mean that we do not cry for other children, all of them are ours, from all over the world that experience very sad events, including war and conflict.”
Ozturb said during the audience that, if they release it on bail, Tufts has offered several housing options that he hopes to finish his pH.D.
In the affidavits and the judicial hearings, Ozturb and his lawyers emphasized the urgent need for him to be released, pointing out that he has had at least 12 asthma attacks since he was arrested. They also accused the detention center of being overpopulated and unhealthy, which said they may be affecting their well -being.
People meet for a demonstration in support of the student of the University of Tufts, Rumeysa Ozturb, and the student activist of Columbia University, Mohsen Mahdawi, in Foley Square, on May 6, 2025, in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago/Getty images, file
At a time during the audience, he was given a break to take asthma medications after appearing at several points to grab his chest while fighting to speak. She testified that she had an asthma attack at an airport in Atlanta when they transported her to Louisiana.
“He was afraid and was crying,” he testified, added that his daily maintenance inhaler was not initially provided.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said the government revoked the Ozturb Visa due to its pro-Palestinian activism.
“If you request a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and tells us that the reason why it comes to the United States is not only because you want to write opinion articles, but because you want Students of the students of the 3 since the beginning of the second Trump administration.