Detained Tufts student ordered released by federal judge
A federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to release detained Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk.
The big picture: Federal judges in Vermont have now ordered the release of two international students who were abruptly detained over pro-Palestinian speech or protest.
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student who was detained during a U.S. naturalization interview, was released last month.
Driving the news: U.S. District Judge William Sessions granted bail to Öztürk, who has been in custody in a Louisiana detention facility for six weeks.
Öztürk suffered an asthma attack during the bail hearing Friday morning, NBC Boston reported.
Context: Öztürk was detained in March for writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed in the Tufts Daily that criticized her university and urged it to divest from companies tied to Israel.
The government alleged she was "engaged in activities in support of Hamas," but did not explain what those were.
The Trump administration spent weeks fighting orders to bring Öztürk to Vermont to attend her bail hearing in person — and after failed attempts to have her lawsuit against the administration heard in Louisiana instead of New England.
What they're saying: Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in a statement Friday, "We are so relieved that Rümeysa will soon be back in Massachusetts, and won't stop fighting until she is free for good."
Rossman added, "For 45 days, Rümeysa has been detained in Louisiana — over 1,300 miles from her friends, her community, and her lawyers. During that time, she has suffered regular and escalating asthma attacks. And at the same time, the government has failed to produce any justification for her detention."
Asked about the development during a press briefing Friday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she'll have to check on the particular case but added, "We've made quite clear that lower level judges should not be dictating the foreign policy of the United States, and we absolutely believe that the president and the Department of Homeland Security are well within their legal rights to deport illegal immigrants."
Öztürk was in the U.S. legally on a student visa when she was detained.
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