SOMERVILLE, MASS. (WHDH) - A federal judge has ordered that Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk be brought back to Vermont.
Ozturk, 30, was detained by ICE agents on a street in Somerville last month.
Following her arrest, the Turkish national was taken to a facility in Vermont then moved to Louisiana because of space limitations.
“She was hopscotched across multiple state lines without being able to talk to her friends or family,” said Jessica Rossman, Ozturk’s attorney.
The judge said Ozturk should come back to New England no later than May 1, and a bail hearing has now been set for next month.
Ozturk’s legal team has been battling to bring her back to Massachusetts, arguing she’s doing nothing wrong. Ozturk was denied bond on Wednesday.
“That is the only thing that they pointed to to argue that she should be denied bond,” said Rossman.
The Trump administration says Ozturk supported Hamas.
Her attorney’s say her detention is because of an op-ed she wrote in a student newspaper about the war in Gaza.
“If the administration disagrees with you, you can be punished, and that’s something that should be alarming to every single person,” said Rossman.
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