A federal judge has denied the Trump administration's attempt to dismiss or transfer Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk’s case to the state of Louisiana, instead ruling that the proceeding will be transferred to Vermont.
US District Judge Denise Casper for Massachusetts also granted a request on Friday to block the government from removing Ozturk from the US while her petition challenging her detention is considered.
In her 26-page decision, Casper said Vermont was the appropriate venue for the case since Ozturk had been confined there at the time the petition was filed.
Trump administration had asked Casper to move the case to Louisiana, where Ozturk is currently being held. Any appeals there would have been handled by one of the most conservative appeals courts in the country.
The judge noted that Ozturk’s legal team had not known her whereabouts after her arrest, and therefore, could not be faulted for filing the petition in the state of Massachusetts, where Ozturk had been detained initially.
Attempts to target her for Tufts Daily op-ed advocating equal dignity for all will not deter her commitment to youth and children's rights, says the Turkish student in statement.
‘Restoring Ozturk's rights’
Ozturk, 30, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University and Fulbright scholar, was arrested March 25 near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, while heading to an iftar dinner to break her fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Mahsa Khanbabai, an attorney representing Ozturk, welcomed the ruling as "one step closer to restoring Rumeysa Ozturk's rights."
She said the ruling sends a "clear message that the government cannot manipulate jurisdiction in order to target human rights defenders, in violation of their First Amendment rights."
No charges have been filed against Ozturk, according to Khanbabai, who thinks she "should never have been arrested or detained by ICE in the first place."
Jessie Rossman, legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, said the group is ready to defend Ozturk’s rights in Vermont to "bring her back to her loved ones and life in Somerville."
A viral video captured the moments of her detention, showing masked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents handcuffing her and forcibly taking away her phone.
US Secretary of State Rubio said her F-1 was revoked. Authorities claim she engaged in activities supporting the Palestinian group, Hamas, an allegation her family and advocates strongly deny.
Ozturk's lawyers and supporters argue that she was detained for co-writing an op-ed in The Tufts Daily in March 2024 that criticised the university's handling of the pro-Palestinian movement.
Tufts on Wednesday called for Ozturk's release, saying it knew of no facts warranting her arrest or suggesting she violated campus policies.
She is a Fulbright Scholar and student in Tufts' doctoral programme for Child Study and Human Development and had been in the country on a student visa.
Ozturk’s detention comes amid the Trump administration's broader clampdown on pro-Palestinian students and academics, including the detention of Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, and Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri.
