US federal judge grants bail to Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk

Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk was granted bail in a hearing in federal court in Vermont on Thursday, a blow to the Trump administration, which had placed her in deportation proceedings.

Judge William Sessions III, who presided over her case, said that the Turkish national's continued detention could not stand, and “bail was necessary to make the habeas remedy effective”.

During the proceedings that lasted almost three hours, the judge heard from four witnesses presented by Ozturk’s legal team. The government did not bring forth any witnesses.

After the closing remarks, judge Sessions said the court had found Ozturk had sufficiently established all three claims pertaining to her detention.

“Ozturk has raised serious concerns about her health in a sworn affidavit,” he said.

New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch

Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters

The judge agreed that Ozturk had deteriorated healthwise and that her detention constitutes a "continued infringement" on Ms Ozturk’s First Amendment and due process rights.

"Meanwhile, her detention chills the speech of the millions of people who are not citizens, from fear of being whisked away from their home. For all of those reasons, the court finds her continued detention cannot stand.”

The PhD student has been in an immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) detention centre in Basile, Louisiana, since she was snatched by plainclothes agents wearing masks on the streets of Somerville, Massachusetts, on 25 March, after her student visa was revoked without her knowledge.

The bail hearing comes after a federal appeals court ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration had until 14 May to transfer Ozturk to immigration custody in Vermont.

Previously, a judge in Massachusetts had ordered Ozturk’s case to be moved to Vermont last month, where she was said to be when the petition was filed.

Judge Sessions gave the federal government a 1 May deadline to transfer Ozturk.

The federal government appealed that decision, and the federal ruling was a strike against the federal government’s push to keep Ozturk in Louisiana, a Republican-leaning state.

Deteriorating health

In the face of the legal challenges that Ozturk faced to appear in person in court, she testified remotely from Louisiana with one of her attorneys, Mahsa Khanbabai, by her side.

She was one of four witnesses to testify in her case. In one of the central arguments, Ozturk said that her asthma had worsened both in frequency and intensity since she had been detained.

She told the court that she had had nine asthma attacks since she had first been diagnosed in 2023, with each attack lasting between five and 15 minutes. She said she had to diligently manage her environment to control her asthma, including monitoring cleaning supplies, exposure to people and pets.

Since she had been detained, however, she had suffered 12 asthma attacks that now could last up to 45 minutes in duration, saying her first one had taken place while she was at the airport waiting to be flown to Louisiana.

“Physical anxiety, hunger, and stress triggered my asthma. I was afraid and I was crying," she testified.

She said that detention conditions, which included a lack of proper air ventilation, a lack of fresh air, exposure to cleaning products, mice, sharing a cell with 24 people, and stress, had exacerbated her condition.

The court also heard from board-certified pulmonary disease physician Jessica McCannon, who testified that she had reviewed Ozturk’s case and had also met with her remotely about her asthma condition.

McCannon testified that if asthma is not controlled properly, conditions can worsen.

“If she remains in detention, I believe her asthma symptoms will worsen,” McCannon said in her testimony.

While Dr McCannon testified, Khanbabai asked the court if Ozturk could be excused from the room because she was having an asthma attack.

Not a flight risk

The third witness to testify was her primary academic advisor, Susan Johnson, who said she had known Ozturk for five years.

Johnson said that Ozturk was scheduled to finish her PhD in December, and every day she was in detention prevented her from finishing on time.

“Every day that goes by puts her at risk of not meeting that December deadline," she said.

She said that Ozturk had missed her qualifying review on 8 May, during which her department “would review her entire body of work to decide whether she was ready to move forward with her dissertation”.

She also testified to Ozturk being a caring, compassionate person who was missed by people in her department.

The last witness was Becky Penberthy, the adult restorative services manager of the Burlington Community Justice Center, who said that she would supervise Ozturk and monitor her whereabouts if she were granted bail.

Judge Sessions concluded by saying: “This is a woman who is totally committed to her academic career. This is probably someone who doesn’t have anything going on apart from reaching out to other members of her community in a caring and compassionate way.  There is absolutely no evidence she has participated in violence or advocated violence. She has done nothing else except attend university and expand her contacts within the community in such a supportive way.

“I do not find any of the contacts she has had in the community create any danger or risk of flight."

middleeasteye.net