A federal judge issued an order on Friday for the transfer of a Turkish Tufts University student currently detained in Louisiana by immigration authorities to Vermont by May 1. This transfer is for a hearing related to what her legal representatives claim is a retaliatory action following an op-ed she co-authored in the student newspaper.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions has scheduled a hearing to address Rumeysa Ozturk’s plea for release from detention. Her legal team had specifically asked for her immediate release or at the very least, her return to Vermont.
The 30-year-old doctoral student was apprehended by immigration officials while walking in Somerville, a Boston suburb, on March 25. Subsequently, she was moved to New Hampshire, then Vermont, before being flown to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Basile, Louisiana the following day.
During a hearing on Wednesday, an immigration judge rejected her bond request.
