Overview

• U.S. District Judge William Sessions ruled that Rümeysa Öztürk's detention violated her First Amendment and due process rights, ordering her immediate release on bail.
• Öztürk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University, was arrested in March after co-authoring a campus op-ed critical of Israel's Gaza campaign.
• The government provided no evidence beyond the op-ed to justify her detention, which Sessions noted could chill speech among noncitizens in the U.S.
• Öztürk testified about worsening asthma attacks in detention, citing unsanitary and overcrowded conditions in a Louisiana ICE facility.
• She is now free to return to Massachusetts and Vermont without travel restrictions as her immigration proceedings and habeas petition continue.