In a case igniting fierce debate across campuses and courtrooms, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University—arrested after co-authoring a pro-Palestinian op-ed—will appear remotely before a federal judge Friday to argue for her release from U.S. immigration custody.
Rumeysa Ozturk, detained for six weeks and currently held in a Louisiana facility, was initially ordered to be brought to Vermont for an in-person hearing. But Judge William Sessions chose not to wait for that transfer, opting instead to move forward with Friday’s virtual bail hearing.
Ozturk’s arrest on March 25 in Somerville, Massachusetts, came just days after she publicly criticized Tufts University’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Since then, her case has become a lightning rod in the escalating crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism on U.S. campuses.
Her legal team, backed by the ACLU of Vermont, argued that further delay in her transfer—extended to May 14 by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals—was both unnecessary and harmful. They urged the court to consider her deteriorating health, citing multiple asthma attacks suffered during her confinement.
“She really shouldn’t be forced to undergo another week of detention,” said her attorney, pushing for swift action.
Government lawyers pushed back, warning that holding the hearing ahead of the revised transfer deadline could clash with the appellate court’s timeline. But the judge seemed unwilling to keep Ozturk waiting behind bars any longer for a bureaucratic shuffle.
Once a quiet PhD student, Ozturk now finds herself at the heart of a political storm—caught between immigration enforcement and a growing movement of students and academics demanding her release. Friday’s hearing may be virtual, but the stakes couldn’t be more real.
