A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release on bail a Turkish university student after she was detained in March and swiftly moved to an immigration detention facility in Louisiana.
Rumeysa Ozturk is currently held in a detention facility in Louisiana. She has been in custody for more than six weeks, and in her testimony today, she described worsening asthma attacks after being exposed to triggers in a cramped environment.
Earlier this week, a three-judge panel with the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled that the federal government has one week to facilitate Ozturk's transfer from the Louisiana facility to Vermont.
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Ozturk was informed that her student visa had been revoked. Her arrest followed her role as one of four students who authored an op-ed last year criticizing Tufts University's response to Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. The article largely supported the people in Gaza, and some perceived it as anti-Semitic rhetoric in support of Hamas, which the U.S. has labeled a foreign terrorist organization.
"I would express my own observations; this is a woman who is totally committed to her career. There is absolutely no evidence that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence," Sessions said.
The government had sought travel restrictions and other limitations against Ozturk, but Sessions stated he does not find her community contacts pose any risk to the community or any risk of flight.
Sessions said Ozturk has raised a substantial claim that her detention violates her due process rights and her First Amendment rights.
Ozturk told the court on Friday about the work she's done in her higher education studies. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia and is now a Ph.D. candidate at Tufts.
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Ozturk's legal team argues that she is being penalized solely because of that op-ed and claims the government is infringing on her right to free speech. Her attorneys also contend that she needs to be transferred back north to be closer to her family and legal support.
Ozturk described a moment when a nurse in the detention facility forcefully took off her hijab while she was seeking treatment for an asthma attack. She said it took a while for her hijab to be returned.
Reporting from Ava-joye Burnett was used in this report.
