Judge denies Tufts student's release from detention in Louisiana

An immigration judge denied bond Wednesday to Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University student who was picked up by federal agents and quickly transferred to a Louisiana detention center last month, her attorneys said.

In a hearing that was closed to the press, the Louisiana judge was asked to determine whether Öztürk posed a flight risk or a danger to her community, according to her attorneys.

The burden of proof was on the Department of Homeland Security, whose attorneys argued that Öztürk posed a flight risk. The judge agreed and determined she should continue to be held.

“Yesterday was a complete violation of due process and the rule of law. The immigration courts are cowering to the Trump administration's attempts to silence advocates of Palestinian rights,” said Marty Rosenbluth, one of Öztürk’s attorneys, in a statement.

Öztürk’s attorneys contend the government’s case in the bond hearing rested solely on a one-paragraph State Department memo that said her visa was revoked because she’d been involved in associations that “may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization.”

The memo only cites an op-ed she co-wrote in the Tufts University student newspaper in 2024 that called for the school to disclose and divest from companies with ties to Israel. The State Department said the op-ed "found common cause" with an organization it claims was temporarily banned from campus.

Mahsa Khanbabai, one of Öztürk’s attorneys, said in a statement the government relied on this memo “to falsely claim she is a danger to her community.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The denial of bond narrows the pathways available to Öztürk to be released from detention.

She could appeal the bond decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, according to Marlborough-based immigration attorney Tim Caron.

He said bond hearings that he’s been involved with usually deal with immigrants who have a criminal history and the government introduces a police report. He said it’s surprising “if it is truly just a memo,” calling Öztürk’s case “a whole nother animal.”

“These seem like very new circumstances,” Caron said. “I have never before encountered in my bond hearings."

A separate challenge to the legitimacy of her arrest and detention is playing out concurrently in a Vermont federal court. Her attorneys are asking the judge there to have her released or returned to Vermont by April 18.

Öztürk’s professors, colleagues, friends, the president of Tufts University, and a coalition of 27 Jewish organizations from across the country have submitted letters to the Vermont federal court in support of her release.

“Ms. Öztürk has committed no crime and DHS has provided zero evidence in their case against her,” Khanbabai, her attorney, said. “This attack on free speech is despicable, but we won’t be deterred. We will keep fighting until Ms. Öztürk is safely returned home to Massachusetts.”

On March 25, she was surrounded by six plainclothes immigration agents on a street near her home in Somerville, handcuffed, placed in an unmarked SUV, and then quietly moved to three other states. It wasn’t until she’d arrived at the South Louisiana Detention Center in Basile, nearly 24 hours later, that she was able to speak to her attorney.

Öztürk said she thought she’d been kidnapped and feared for her life throughout the first several hours after her arrest, according to her signed declaration filed in Vermont federal court on April 10. She also said in the filing that she became concerned she would be a target of violence after a profile of her appeared in February on Canary Mission, an anonymously-run website that blacklists individuals it considers anti-Israel.

A DHS memo to the State Department, reported on by The Washington Post, used language nearly identical to the Canary Mission’s page that recommended her visa be revoked.

The State Department later revoked her visa on March 21, according to court filings.

An office within the State Department later determined there was no evidence to support the allegation Öztürk had engaged in antisemitic activities or made public statements supporting a terrorist organization, according to another memo described to Post reporters.

In her April 10 declaration, Öztürk described the conditions at the detention facility as “unsafe, unsanitary, and inhumane,” and said she’d suffered four asthma attacks since being detained. Her attorneys said in court documents on Wednesday that she’s since suffered two more.