Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk detained by US immigration authorities must be released, judge rules
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to release Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student from Turkey who has been held for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
US district judge William Sessions during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, granted bail to Öztürk, who is at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Donald Trump’s campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American campuses.
The judge ruled shortly after a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to re-detain Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian campus activist who a different judge in Vermont ordered released last week after immigration authorities arrested him as well.
Ozturk’s arrest on 25 March by masked, plainclothes law enforcement officers on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, near her home was captured in a viral video and occurred after the state department revoked her student visa.
The sole basis authorities have provided for revoking her visa was an opinion piece she co-authored in Tufts’ student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.
Her lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union had argued that her arrest and detention were unlawfully designed to punish her for speech protected by the constitution’s first amendment and to chill the speech of others.
Öztürk was moved to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana, even though her lawyer filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts the day she was arrested and a judge there barred her from being moved out of the state without 48 hours’ notice.
By the time that order came down, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already taken her to Vermont, where she was held briefly before being flown to Louisiana.
Rather than dismiss her case as the administration wanted, a Massachusetts judge transferred the case to Vermont, saying it could be properly heard there.
Sessions then ordered Öztürk transferred to Vermont so she could be available as he weighed ordering her release and considered the “significant constitutional concerns” she had raised.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered her transferred to Vermont by 14 May, but Sessions opted to proceed with a previously-scheduled bail hearing to go forward on Friday and allow Ozturk to appear remotely after her lawyers said she was suffering from worsening asthma attacks while in custody.
Key events
One such colleague is Senator Ed Markey, who called the order for Öztürk’s release “a victory for Rümeysa, for justice, and for our democracy”. He posted on X:
Rümeysa Öztürk has finally been ordered released. She has been unlawfully detained for more than six weeks in an ICE facility in Louisiana, more than 1,500 miles away from Somerville. This is a victory for Rümeysa, for justice, and for our democracy.
Senator Elizabeth Warren posted on X: “The Trump administration must release Rümeysa Öztürk right now.”
Warren is one of the members of Congress who has been pushing for Öztürk’s release and the restoration of her visa. In March she called Öztürk’s arrest and detention without due process “deeply disturbing” and with colleagues has been demanding answers about the case from the Trump administration since.
According to court filings, Rümeysa Öztürk has suffered multiple asthma attacks in detention that she has struggled to get treated for, and has had her hijab forcibly removed.
Öztürk appeared on video at the hearing earlier and told the judge she had suffered 12 asthma attacks since her detention, saying:
Now they are between five to 45 minutes and they are more intense … longer and harder to stop.
“We are not allowed to take fresh air when we need to take it … Also there is no divider between the showers,” Öztürk said.
“Also the maximum capacity for the room is indicated … for 14 people but there are 24 people living in a small area, spanning … more than 22 hours inside of the same locked cell,” she added.
Following Öztürk’s initial testimony, her doctor, Jessica McCannon, testified about her diagnosis of Öztürk’s asthma. At one point, Öztürk had an asthma attack during McCannon’s testimony, which her lawyers had to interrupt. The judge then excused Öztürk and allowed her to temporarily step out of the room to use the bathroom.
Addressing the court, McCannon said:
She is at significantly increased risk of developing an asthma exacerbation if not released, that would potentially require emergency evaluation.
If not treated appropriately and quickly, patients can suffer morbidity and mortality related to asthma exacerbations.
The Trump administration is attempting to deport Rümeysa Öztürk under a rarely used immigration statute giving the secretary of state the authority to remove immigrants deemed harmful to US foreign policy. Her lawyers say it is a flagrant violation of her constitutional right to free speech.
US district judge William Sessions, in ordering her release, said her continued detention “potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens. Any one of them may now avoid exercising their first amendment rights for fear of being whisked away to a detention center from their home. For all of those reasons, the court finds that her continued detention cannot stand, that bail is necessary to make the habeas [petition] … effective.”
He added:
This is a woman who’s just totally committed to her academic career … there is absolutely no evidence that that she has engaged in violence or advocated violence. She has no criminal record … therefore, the court finds that she does not pose a danger to the community.
Monica Allard, staff attorney with the ACLU of Vermont, said of the order for the release of Rümeysa Öztürk.
After today’s ruling, Rümeysa can return to her community at Tufts and sleep safely in her own bed. Tomorrow, she can wake up and begin the process of healing from this experience while she finishes her PhD in child development.
Spending over six weeks in detention for writing an op-ed is a constitutional horror story. Her release is a victory for everyone committed to justice, free speech, and basic human rights.
Mahsa Khanbabai of Khanbabai Immigration Law, who is representing Rümeysa Öztürk, said of the order for her release:
I am relieved and ecstatic that Rümeysa has been ordered released. 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?
I am thankful that the courts have been ruling in favor of detained political prisoners like Rümeysa. The public plays an important role in upholding our constitutional rights. Please continue to speak up for democracy and civil rights in every space including our elected offices, our universities, and our halls of justice.
Trump won’t unilaterally lower China tariffs, White House says
Donald Trump remains firm that the United States is not going to unilaterally reduce tariffs on Chinese goods without concessions from China, Leavitt said, hours after Trump floated the idea of reducing the current rate of 145% down to 80% as the two sides prepare for talks in Switzerland.
“That was a number the president threw out there, and we’ll see what happens this weekend,” she told reporters.
At the White House press briefing, Karoline Leavitt says secretary of State Marco Rubio is in constant contact with the leaders of both India and Pakistan.
With tensions continuing to escalate between the two neighboring countries, Leavitt reiterated that Donald Trump wants to see the conflict de-escalate.
Tufts student Rümeysa Öztürk detained by US immigration authorities must be released, judge rules
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Friday to release Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts University student from Turkey who has been held for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
US district judge William Sessions during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, granted bail to Öztürk, who is at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Donald Trump’s campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American campuses.
The judge ruled shortly after a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to re-detain Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian campus activist who a different judge in Vermont ordered released last week after immigration authorities arrested him as well.
Ozturk’s arrest on 25 March by masked, plainclothes law enforcement officers on a street in Somerville, Massachusetts, near her home was captured in a viral video and occurred after the state department revoked her student visa.
The sole basis authorities have provided for revoking her visa was an opinion piece she co-authored in Tufts’ student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.
Her lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union had argued that her arrest and detention were unlawfully designed to punish her for speech protected by the constitution’s first amendment and to chill the speech of others.
Öztürk was moved to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana, even though her lawyer filed a lawsuit in Massachusetts the day she was arrested and a judge there barred her from being moved out of the state without 48 hours’ notice.
By the time that order came down, Immigration and Customs Enforcement had already taken her to Vermont, where she was held briefly before being flown to Louisiana.
Rather than dismiss her case as the administration wanted, a Massachusetts judge transferred the case to Vermont, saying it could be properly heard there.
Sessions then ordered Öztürk transferred to Vermont so she could be available as he weighed ordering her release and considered the “significant constitutional concerns” she had raised.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered her transferred to Vermont by 14 May, but Sessions opted to proceed with a previously-scheduled bail hearing to go forward on Friday and allow Ozturk to appear remotely after her lawyers said she was suffering from worsening asthma attacks while in custody.
Earlier we brought you CBS News’s report on Trump’s proposal to push drugmakers to charge the US government the same as other countries, a policy he pursued unsuccessfully in his first term.
It’s unclear, reports NBC News, whether Trump’s new plan will once again target only Medicare Part B drugs or include other medications covered under the program.
One official told NBC said the proposal had not been finalized and could still change. The White House did not respond to a request for comment, but Karoline Leavitt will no doubt be asked about it during the White House press briefing shortly.
“I don’t see an excuse for why prices should be all over the place, and we wind up getting charged the most,” Arthur Caplan, the head of the medical ethics division at NYU Langone medical center in New York City, told NBC in support of the proposal. “If this can do something about what is clearly an emergency, which is the ever-increasing cost of drugs as one major source of inflation, I’m for it.”
However, experts also doubted the new policy would withstand pushback from the drug industry. “I am unsure the new executive order will fare any better,” Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, told NBC.
Tricia Neuman, executive director for the program on Medicare policy at KFF, a health policy research group, told NBC it would likely have public support if implemented. But added: “The idea of making sure the US pays no more than similar countries polls well, but it’s controversial, and will likely face fierce opposition from the pharmaceutical industry.”
White House press briefing
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is due to speak to reporters shortly on Trump’s agenda and trade negotiations. I’ll bring you all the key points from that.
Pope Leo unhappy with US immigration policy and won’t stay silent, brother says
Sam Jones
Despite the pronouncements of veteran Vatican-watchers, the rash of profiles and the raking over of old statements, very few people seem to know exactly where Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost – now known as Pope Leo XIV – stands on the big issues of the day.
But one person who has a better idea than most is the new pontiff’s elder brother John Prevost.
In a recent interview with the New York Times (paywall), Prevost noted his brother’s emotional and ideological proximity to his friend Pope Francis and said he shared Leo predecessor’s concerns about the US’s immigration policy.
Prevost described his brother as middle-of-the-road, adding: “I don’t think we’ll see extremes either way.” He also said the new pope would not hesitate to speak out against injustices. “I don’t think he’ll stay quiet for too long if he has something to say.
I know he’s not happy with what’s going on with immigration. I know that for a fact. How far he’ll go with it is only one’s guess, but he won’t just sit back. I don’t think he’ll be the silent one.
Francis made no secret of his opposition to Donald Trump’s border and mass deportations plans, and also took issue with Vice-President JD Vance’s interpretation of the church’s teaching on our responsibilities to others.
Hours after Prevost was elected pope, many seized on posts from an X account apparently belonging to the cardinal that criticised Trump and Vance’s positions. One post shared an article from the National Catholic Reporter, headlined “JD Vance is wrong: Jesus doesn’t ask us to rank our love for others”. Another reposted a report on California Catholic bishops complaining that Trump’s use of the phrase “bad hombres” to describe some Mexicans fuelled “racism and nativism”.
Trump envoy Witkoff to travel to Oman for Iran talks on Sunday – Reuters
Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will travel to Oman on Sunday for a fourth round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.
I’ll bring you more detail when I get it.
People told they were being deported to Libya waited hours on airfield tarmac – Reuters
People in Texas who were told they would be deported to Libya sat on a military airfield tarmac for hours on Wednesday, unsure of what would happen next, an attorney for one of the men told Reuters.
The attorney, Tin Thanh Nguyen, said his client, a Vietnamese construction worker from Los Angeles, was among the people woken in the early morning hours and bused from an immigration detention center in Pearsall, Texas, to an airfield where a military aircraft awaited them.
After several hours, they were bused back to the detention center around noon, the attorney said on Thursday.
The Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon and the state department did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.
Reuters reported earlier this week that Donald Trump’s administration was poised to deport migrants to Libya, a move that would escalate his immigration crackdown which has already drawn legal backlash.
Officials had told Reuters the US military could carry out the flights as soon as Wednesday, but stressed that plans could change.
A US official told Reuters the flight never departed. As of Friday, it was unclear if the administration was still planning to proceed with the deportations.
A federal judge in Boston ruled on Wednesday that any effort by the Trump administration to deport non-Libyan migrants to Libya without adequate screenings for possible persecution or torture would clearly violate a prior court order.
Lawyers for a group of migrants pursuing a class action lawsuit had made an emergency request to the court hours after the news broke of the potential flight to Libya.
Chris Stein
The House Democratic caucus chair, Pete Aguilar, said the party would make a renewed push to ban stock trading by members, accusing Republicans of misusing their positions and undermining public trust.
Lawmakers have for years discussed limiting trading by members, but legislation to do so has failed to be enacted. In a recent interview with Time, Donald Trump endorsed a ban, though it’s unclear if Congress’s GOP leaders will take up the issue.
Aguilar, a California congressman who is the third-highest ranking House Democrat, said the party would make a renewed push for such legislation.
“I think that’s something that we will get behind and embrace,” Aguilar told broadcaster KQED. He pointed to recent revelations that Bruce Westerman, the Republican chair of the House natural resources committee, had bought stocks in mining and energy firms that could benefit from legislation working its way through the chamber. In an interview with Politico, Westerman said his financial adviser made the purchases, and he had asked him to divest from them.
“This is the chair of the natural resources committee that is guiding reconciliation efforts that are opening up our public lands to more drilling that those companies will benefit from,” Aguilar said. “I know the country is cynical of politicians, but those types of things just are absolutely detrimental to having trust in government.”
A member of the board that oversees the US Holocaust Memorial Museum criticized other board members for the institution’s silence after president Trump’s recent firings in a letter on Friday, reports the New York Times.
Kevin Abel, who was appointed to the museum’s board by President Biden in 2023, warned about the dangers of “not speaking up” and wrote that Trump’s “campaign of retribution” had been met with troubling “public silence” by the museum in his letter.
Trump fired a number of board members at the museum appointed by former president Biden, including Doug Emhoff, the husband of former vice-president Kamala Harris. The firings sparked backlash by those concerned that Trump’s moves were an effort to politicize a museum dedicated to educating and memorializing.
US Postal Service names David Steiner as the next postmaster general
The US Postal Service has named David Steiner as the next postmaster general after the Trump administration pressured the prior leader to resign in March. Steiner is a former Waste Management CEO and has served on the board of FedEx.
Amber McReynolds, chair of the USPS board of governors, announced the new head on Friday at an open session of a board meeting. She added that Steiner was set to begin in his position in July.
The board’s appointment comes amid concerns surrounding the future of the Postal Service, with the Trump administration remaining determined to tighten control over an agency that Congress established to be independent decades ago. The agency reported a net loss of $3.3bn for the three months ending 31 March as it continues to increase stamp prices and look for ways to cut costs.
David Richardson, the new head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), told staff on Friday he will “run right over” anyone that resists changes in the agency, reports Reuters.
“I, and I alone in Fema, speak for Fema. I’m here to carry out the president’s intent for Fema,” Richardson, a former marine artillery officer and combat veteran, told the staff.
Richardson spoke just a day after he was appointed to replace the acting Fema chief Cameron Hamilton, who was ousted by the Department of Homeland Security secretary, Kristi Noem, after telling a congressional hearing he did not support eliminating the agency.
President Trump and Noem have called for the agency to be shrunk or potentially even eliminated, arguing that many of its functions can be carried out by the states, a stance that is already leading to decreased federal aid for disasters.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams says he’ll meet with Trump on Friday to discuss “priorities” for the city, reports the Associated Press.
Adams did not offer other details about the planned meeting in Washington, which comes a month after a federal judge approved a US justice department request to dismiss the criminal corruption case against the NYC mayor.
Adams was accused last year by the Biden administration of accepting illegal campaign contributions and travel discounts from a Turkish official and others, in exchange for helping Turkey open a diplomatic building without passing fire inspections, among other things. He had pleaded not guilty and a trial was set for April.
