Judge denies request to order release of Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk

A federal judge in Vermont has denied a request to order Immigration and Customs Enforcement to release detained Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, saying questions of jurisdiction must first be addressed.

The Boston Globe reports that US District Judge William K. Sessions III, who sits in Burlington, Vt. said he needs to rule on whether he has jurisdiction over Ozturk's petition over the legality of her detention before he can consider whether she should be released on bail. The petition was originally filed in federal court in Boston, after Ozturk was taken off the streets of Somerville by federal agents on March 25. Ozturk was transported to New Hampshire and then Vermont, then flown to an ICE detention center in Basile, Louisiana, where she remains.

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A judge ruled the case be moved from Boston to Vermont. The U.S. government contends that the case should be dismissed and go before an immigration judge or transferred to Louisiana. They said she was moved out of New England because there were no available beds, action that they say took place before U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston ordered authorities to keep her in Massachusetts.

Casper has issued another order not to remove her from the United States without notice. For now the case is in Sessions' hands. He has given Ozturk's attorneys and the government until 5 p.m. Thursday to file briefs in the case related to jurisdiction and bail, and scheduled a hearing for April 14.

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Ozturk, 30, is pursuing a doctorate at Tufts. According to court filings, she was swarmed by ICE agents who took her into custody after the Trump administration revoked her student visa four days before, without advance warning. The incident was captured on video and has sparked outrage in the community.

Hundreds of supporters gathered in Somerville to protest the arrest of Ph.D. candidate Rumeysa Ozturk, who is in the custody of ICE in Louisiana.

The U.S. government has accused Ozturk of supporting Hamas. She has not been charged with a crime, and her supporters say she was targeted for an op-ed she co-authored in support of Palestinians that was published in the university newspaper.

Ozturk is one of dozens of international students attending local universities who have had their visas revoked by the Trump administration, which has said it is targeting students it deems a threat to national security. This comes as part of a larger crackdown on allegations of antisemitism at universities across the country.