Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk, arrested by ICE for her op-ed in university newspaper, released by judge

US district judge William Sessions has granted bail to Tufts student Rumetsa Ozturk, a Turkish student who is in the country on a student visa which the ICE revoked and arrested her after she wrote an op-ed in a university newspaper. Her arrest was the most dramatic and masked, plain-clothed agents approached her as she was returning to her apartment and picked her up.

Ozturk was one of the high-profile arrests in the Donald Trump administration that included Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil.

“Simply and purely,” she was detained for “the expression she made or shared in the op-ed” critical of Israel, Sessions told the court.

“I put the government on notice they should introduce any such evidence. .... That was three weeks ago, and there has been no evidence,” Sessions said. “That literally is the case. There is no evidence here as to the motivation, absent consideration of the op-ed.”

Her health has “deteriorated”while in ICE custody, and her arrest “potentially chills the speech of potentially millions of millions of people in this country who are not citizens” who now “fear of being whisked away to a detention center,” Sessions added.

The Department of Justice has not presented any evidence to justify her ongoing detention. The government does not appear to possess any evidence backing up claims of antisemitism and support for a terrorist organization to justify her arrest, according to court filings and government memos.

Ozturk said she was asked to remove hijab

Reports said Ozturk experienced several bouts of asthma attacks since her detention in Louisiana, because of dust, improper ventilation. When she went for treatment, a nurse at the facility asked her to "take the thing off my head" Ozturk said referring to her hijab.