Overview
- Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper granted a preliminary injunction requiring Rümeysa Öztürk’s SEVIS record be reinstated immediately and retroactive to March 25.
- Casper found Öztürk likely to succeed on the merits that ICE unlawfully terminated the record, citing shifting and incoherent government justifications under the Administrative Procedure Act.
- The order bars any future termination of her SEVIS record without at least one week’s notice to her attorneys and an opportunity to be heard.
- Restoration of the SEVIS record clears an administrative barrier that had blocked paid teaching and research positions central to her doctoral training.
- Öztürk was arrested on March 25 after the State Department revoked her visa, spent 45 days in detention before a Vermont judge ordered her release on First Amendment grounds, and DHS did not immediately comment on the new order.