A federal judge ordered that Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was detained late last month, be transferred from a detention center in Louisiana to Vermont no later than at the start of next month.
District Judge William Sessions ruled Friday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has until May 1 to move Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts, to Vermont, where she will be in custody. Sessions also ordered that Ozturk’s bail hearing take place on May 9, during which will have to appear in person.
“Upon review of the First Amendment and Due Process claims and the evidence presented by both parties, the Court concludes that Ms. Ozturk has presented viable and serious habeas claims which warrant urgent review on the merits,” the federal judge said in a 74-page ruling. “The Court plans to move expeditiously to a bail hearing and final disposition of the habeas petition, as Ms. Ozturk’s claims require no less.”
The hearing for the merits of the petition was set for May 22, Sessions ruled.
“The petition, filed in federal district court in Massachusetts, was properly transferred to this Court. There are no technical deficiencies that prevent this Court’s consideration of this petition as if it were originally filed here,” the judge said.
Immigration officers in plain clothes detained the Tufts student on March 25 and placed her in an unmarked van. She was transferred from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, and then to Vermont. Later, she was moved to a detention facility in Louisiana.
Ozturk’s student visa was terminated. Her attorneys have argued that her due process rights were violated.
She was one of the co-authors of an op-ed in the school’s newspaper that slammed Tufts for its response to Israel’s war in Gaza and called on the school to end ties with corporations involved in Israel.
“The Court further finds that Ms. Öztürk has raised significant constitutional concerns with her arrest and detention which merit full and fair consideration in this forum,” the federal judge said Friday.