Rümeysa Öztürk was released on Friday after 5 p.m., speaking briefly to supporters and press outside of the Basile, Louisiana, facility.
“Thank you so much for all the support and love,” she said.
District of Vermont Judge William Sessions ordered the release of the Tufts PhD student at a bail hearing earlier in the day, saying that she had “raised a substantial claim of constitutional violation” and he doesn’t see her as a flight risk or a danger.
Sessions said he saw “no evidence that she poses a risk to the community” and reviewed more than two dozen affidavits about her peaceful nature and ties to the university and community.
“Her continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who were not citizens,” he said.
The student from Turkey was detained six weeks ago in Somerville by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Her student visa was revoked shortly before without her being notified. Öztürk was soon transferred to detention centers in Vermont and then Louisiana.
“Her continued detention cannot stand,” said Sessions. The judge ordered she be released immediately, and that ICE inform him the moment she is released.
Öztürk was detained for 45 days, over 1,300 miles from Somerville.
“Our reaction is the reaction that our client had, is the reaction that everyone in that courtroom had, which was relief and gratitude in seeing the confirmation of what Rümeysa and we have been saying for weeks,” said Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts, told GBH News in an interview. “There’s absolutely no justification for the government to be detaining her.”
An official with the Department of Homeland Security told GBH News after her detention in March that she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio pointed to an opinion piece Öztürk co-authored in the Tufts student newspaper that urged the university’s leadership to divest from companies with ties to Israel. An internal investigation at the Department of State leaked to The Washington Post has since shown that the agency found no connections to Hamas.
The legal question at the heart of the case is whether her free speech and due process rights have been violated. Future hearings will be conducted about her habeas arguments, which would delve into the question of whether any constitutional violations occurred during her arrest and detention.
Her release comes two days after circuit court agreed she should be transferred physically to Vermont for her district court case. Öztürk appeared remotely on Zoom from the South Louisiana Processing Center with her attorney Mahsa Khanbabai of Khanbabai Immigration Law.
Öztürk, 30, wore an orange jumpsuit and a brown head covering to Friday’s hearing. Attorneys, experts and Öztürk herself addressed her health and her work as a doctorate student in the over three-hour-long hearing.
She was asked to describe her asthma diagnosis years ago and her 12 prolonged asthma attacks since she was detained, triggered by stress, cleaning supplies used in detention and exposure to smoke.
A number of people testified, including Dr. Jessica McCannon, a Massachusetts General Hospital specialist who discussed the effects detention was having on Öztürk’s health.
McCannon said her asthma was “poorly controlled,” and if Öztürk remained in detention, she might need emergency assistance.
In the middle of the hearing, Öztürk suffered from an asthma attack and left briefly with the judge’s permission.
Öztürk spoke about the research she conducts at Tufts for the child and human development program, specifically looking at how children interact with media.
Sara Johnson, an associate professor at the Tufts’ department of child study and human development, is Öztürk’s advisor and also testified before the court. She spoke of the research Öztürk has missed out on, a conference she couldn’t attend because of her detention and missed dissertation presentations.
Öztürk’s attorney Rossman noted a declaration to the court from Tufts that the university was willing to provide student housing for Öztürk.
“This is a woman who’s just totally committed to her academic career,” Sessions said. “This is someone who probably doesn’t have a whole lot of other things going on other than reaching out to other members of the community in a caring and compassionate way. There is absolutely no evidence that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence.”
Sessions listened to testimony from Becky Penberthy, adult restorative services manager at the Burlington Community Justice Center in Vermont, which offered to provide community supervision. He ordered Öztürk be allowed to return to Somerville with no travel restrictions.
Session wants Öztürk to have at least monthly contact with Penberthy, who will send a report to him.
“The idea of course is for her to reintegrate into the Somerville community after what has been a very traumatic event,” said Sessions.
Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont Michael Drescher said the government will continue to pursue Öztürk’s removal from the country.
“We continue to assert that this court is neither the right forum nor is this the right time for hearing this habeas claim in the absence of habeas jurisdiction,” he said. Drescher said the government is not “abandoning” its arguments and wants to “preserve them for further litigation if appropriate.”
The judge ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to work with Öztürk’s attorneys on the details of her release.
ICE and the Department of Homeland Security referred questions about her release to the Executive Office of Immigration Review, the entity under the Department of Justice that oversees the nation’s immigration courts. That entity referred questions back to the Department of Homeland Security.
Members of Massachusetts’ congressional delegation celebrated the judge’s order Friday. Reps. Ayanna Pressley and Jim McGovern, as well as Sen. Ed Markey, traveled to Louisiana to visit Öztürk last month and advocate for her release.
“Let us be clear: Rümeysa should have never been abducted off the streets of Somerville, had her visa revoked, and moved to a detention site more than 1,500 miles away, all in violation of her constitutional rights,” said Pressley, McGovern, Markey and Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote in a joint statement. “Rümeysa is a cherished member of her community, and we are relieved that she can finally return to Massachusetts. This is a victory for Rümeysa, for justice, and for our democracy.”
Another of Öztürk’s attorneys, Khanbabai, said she was “relieved and ecstatic” at the news of the order.
“Unfortunately, it is 45 days too late. She has been imprisoned all these days for simply writing an op-ed that called for human rights and dignity for the people in Palestine. When did speaking up against oppression become a crime? When did speaking up against genocide become something to be imprisoned for?” Khanbabai emailed to GBH News. “I am thankful that the courts have been ruling in favor of detained political prisoners like Rümeysa.”
