Court orders Tufts University student be quickly moved to ICE custody in Vermont, denies government appeal

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Security camera captures moment Tufts student on visa arrested by DHS

A security camera captured the moment Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was arrested by federal agents this week. (Credit: Storyful)

Federal appeals judges on Wednesday ruled a Turkish Tufts University student currently being held by immigration authorities in Louisiana should be quickly transferred to Vermont, to address what her attorney’s claim is unlawful detention for co-authoring a pro-Hamas op-ed in her student newspaper. The Trump administration had requested the transfer be halted.

Rumeysa Öztürk, 30, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on March 26 near an off-campus apartment building in Somerville, Massachusetts, after her visa was revoked by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Her attorney, Esha Bhandari, argued Öztürk’s claims do not focus on the potential ICE removal, but on unlawful detention in retaliation for expressing her views in accordance with the First Amendment right to free speech — stating her arguments need to be heard immediately.

Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. (AP Photo)

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Bhandari said Öztürk has been held in custody for six weeks and her health has deteriorated.

The decision seemingly sides with Öztürk, whose attorney previously said the Trump administration was “forum shopping,” by having ICE move her to Louisiana, where courts’ rulings may be less favorable to her case.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office argued the reason for the transfer was limited holding space in Massachusetts prior to the trial, Fox News Digital previously reported.

Rumeysa Öztürk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday, March 25. (AP)

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Officials noted Öztürk, a doctoral student at Tufts, was sent to Vermont before being moved to Louisiana within 24 hours.

The three-judge panel ruled that since the district court’s original transfer deadline passed, the government must comply with the transfer within one week.

“Being granted a visa to live and study in the United States is a privilege not a right,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Today’s ruling does not prevent the continued detention of Ms. Ozturk, and we will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country.”

Öztürk, who DHS officials accused of supporting Hamas, co-authored an op-ed in the university student newspaper, criticizing the university’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza and calling on the university to divest from Israel.

A sign stands at the edge of the campus of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, on Nov. 27, 2017.  (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)

Prior to her arrest, she had a valid F-1 visa status and there were no charges against her, Öztürk’s attorneys previously told Fox News.

An executive order was signed by President Donald Trump in January to retract Hamas supporters’ student visas amid an “unprecedented wave of vile anti-semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses,” Fox News Digital previously reported.

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The White House and ICE did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

Alexandra Koch is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Prior to joining Fox News, Alexandra covered breaking news, crime, religion, and the military in the southeast.