Tufts doctoral student detained by ICE for 6 weeks is ordered released

The Tufts University graduate student who was taken into custody by federal immigration agents outside her Somerville home six weeks ago was ordered released on bail Friday.

A federal judge in Vermont made the ruling after a three hour bail hearing.

The student, Rümeysa Öztürk, appeared at the hearing remotely from a U.S. detention facility in Louisiana, where she's been held since shortly after ICE agents picked her up.

The Trump administration had revoked her visa before agents made the arrest. Öztürk faces no criminal charges. The only claim federal authorities have made against her is that she co-wrote an op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper that was critical of Israel's attacks on Gaza and called on Tufts to cut financial ties with Israel.

Jessie Rossman, attorney and legal director with the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, was in the courtroom to represent Öztürk and spoke with WBUR's All Things Considered host Lisa Mullins after the hearing.