A federal judge has ordered the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University, who was detained for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration facility after co-authoring an opinion piece critical of her university's response to the Israel-Gaza conflict. U.S. District Judge William Sessions, sitting in Burlington, Vermont, granted Ozturk bail on Friday, ruling that her detention likely violated her First Amendment rights.

Ozturk, a PhD student and Fulbright scholar, was arrested on March 25 in Somerville, Massachusetts, by masked, plainclothes officers after the U.S. Department of State revoked her student visa. According to court filings, the sole basis for the visa revocation was an op-ed she co-wrote for Tufts' student newspaper, which criticized the university's stance on calls to divest from companies with ties to Israel and referred to a "Palestinian genocide."

"Her continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens," Judge Sessions said in his ruling, emphasizing that Ozturk had raised a substantial claim that her detention was motivated solely by her protected speech. "Any one of them may now avoid exercising their First Amendment rights for fear of being whisked away to a detention center."

Ozturk, who appeared virtually at the bail hearing from the Louisiana detention center, could be seen embracing one of her attorneys after the judge announced her release. According to her legal team, she was freed hours later.

Jessie Rossman, one of Ozturk's attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts, celebrated the ruling, saying, "We are so relieved that Rumeysa will soon be back in Massachusetts, and we won't stop fighting until she is free for good."

Tufts University issued a statement expressing support for Ozturk, saying it hoped she would be able to rejoin the campus community soon to resume her studies. The university also said it would help provide her with housing upon her return.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller denounced the decision, calling it part of a "judicial coup" and complaining that the administration could not individually litigate every student visa it sought to revoke.

Ozturk's case is one of the highest-profile examples of the administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism on U.S. campuses, drawing attention to the constitutional limits of visa revocations based on protected speech. The judge is expected to hear further arguments in Ozturk's underlying lawsuit at a later date, as her legal team continues to challenge the legality of her arrest and detention.