Rumeysa Ozturk Tufts student ordered released from ICE detention in judicial ruling on Friday is yet the latest pushback against the Trump administration’s attempt to muzzle anti-Israel dissent amid concerns of executive over reach along with freedom of speech and legal due process.
Is Trump beginning to lose the executive boundaries of his administration’s policies?
The Trump administration has been met with yet another setback in its push to expand its use of executive power after a federal judge ordered Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, to be released from ICE detention on Friday.
Ozturk, a Turkish national, was ‘whisked away’ by masked immigration agents as she walked along a street in Somerville, Massachusetts on March 26. Her abrupt arrest and detainment captured on video, led to many asking whether the Trump administration had gone too far in detaining the PhD student, who had co-penned a student essay the year before calling out Israel’s relentless bombing and massacre of Palestinian civilians amid that region’s ongoing violence and conflict.
Tufts student ordered detained
Ozturk, had joined the ranks of other student activists and protesters, including Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri, Columbia University student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil (since released from detention following an order from a federal judge) along with student activist, Yunseo Chung, both legal permanent residents, who found themselves on the wrong side of the Trump’s policy which has sought to muzzle dissent on ongoing Israeli military atrocities activities in the region.
In calling for the student activists’ deportation, the Trump administration has sought to invoke a rarely used, ‘war time’ precedent which seeks to criminalise dissent on the basis of the alleged compromising of US foreign policy – and by doing so, pushing the limits of his administration’s exercising of executive rule relative to what the U.S constitution legally sets forth and allows.
At the time of Ozturk’s arrest in March, Department of Homeland Security officials stated the student had ‘engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.’
Officials further claimed Ozturk had ‘engaged in anti-Israel activism’ after the Turkish national co-penning a March 2024 essay that ‘called for Tufts to disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.’’
Nevertheless an internal State Department memo itself admits the department had not produced any evidence showing the academic had engaged in antisemitic activities or at the very least made public statements supporting a terrorist organization.
Where was the Trump’s administration evidence?
Despite this, Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed off on Ozturk’s arrest on ‘foreign policy’ grounds. ‘We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas,’ Rubio said two days after Ozturk’s arrest.
The lack of overt evidence of diabolical behavior or activities has now led to pushback by the courts, a third rung of power along with congress and executive rule.
‘Her continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of people in this country who are not citizens,’ District of Vermont Judge William Sessions said during Friday’s hearing.
‘There has been no evidence that has been introduced by the government other than the op-ed. I mean, that literally is the case,’ he added.
‘There is no evidence here as to the motivation, absent consideration of the op-ed, so that creates unto itself a very significant [and] substantial claim that the op-ed – that is, the expression of one’s opinion as ordinarily protected by the First Amendment –form the basis of this particular detention.’
The legal question at the heart of the case is whether Ozturk’s free speech and due process rights have been violated. Future hearings will be conducted about her habeas arguments, which would delve into the question of whether any constitutional violations occurred during her arrest and detention.
Such a beautiful win for Rumeysa Ozturk, snatched off the street and held in an ICE detention center, finally released today.
It should NEVER have happened. pic.twitter.com/391XyfiJxx
— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) May 9, 2025
Rumeysa Ozturks right to free speech and due process
The judge’s decision on Friday comes just days after a federal Appeals Court upheld a lower court’s ruling that Ozturk be transferred from Louisiana to Vermont.
The Phd student’s ordered release is another major blow to the Trump administration over its effort to deport international students and scholars who speak out for Palestinian rights. Her release follows Palestinian Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi’s release on bail last week.
This week, a federal court ruled against the Trump administration’s effort to move Khan Suri’s case challenging his detention from Virginia to Louisiana.
Meanwhile, a federal court also denied the Trump administration’s attempt to move detained Columbia student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil’s habeas case out of New Jersey.
The Trump administration was seeking to have both cases in Louisiana in an effort legal experts describe as “forum shopping” to find courts more likely to go along with their deportation regime.
Contemplated one of Ozturk’s lawyers in the immediate aftermath of her ruling to be 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.’
Stated Ozturk moments after her 5 p.m release from a Louisiana ICE detention facility, ‘Thank you so much for all the support and love.’
