A federal judge on Friday ordered that a Turkish Tufts University student detained by immigration authorities in Louisiana be brought to Vermont by May 1 for a hearing over what her lawyers say was apparent retaliation for an op-ed piece she co-wrote in the student newspaper.
U.S. District Judge William Sessions said he would hear Rumeysa Ozturk’s request to be released from detention. Her lawyers had requested that she be released immediately, or at least brought back to Vermont.
The 30-year-old doctoral student was taken by immigration officials as she walked along a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville on March 25. After being taken to New Hampshire and then Vermont, she was put on a plane the next day and moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana.
An immigration judge denied her request for bond Wednesday.