Tufts student challenging immigration arrest must be moved to Vermont, judge rules
A federal judge has ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration to transfer Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk being held in Louisiana to Vermont while he weighs her claims that US immigration authorities unlawfully arrested her based on her pro-Palestinian advocacy, Reuters reports.
The decision by US District Judge William Sessions in Burlington marked an early victory for Ozturk, a 30-year-old Turkish national, in her continuing bid to be released from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s custody and return to her studies following her March 25 arrest in Massachusetts.
The case has become a flashpoint in the administration’s rapid moves to revoke the visas and legal status of hundreds of international students, including pro-Palestinian activists, as part of Trump’s hardline approach to immigration.
The night before Ozturk was transferred to Louisiana, a lawyer for her sued in Massachusetts to challenge her arrest. A judge quickly ordered authorities not to remove Ozturk from Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice.
Read more here.