Judge blocks government from deporting detained Tufts student while court weighs jurisdiction
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday blocked the government from deporting a Tufts University graduate student who was arrested this week by immigration officers and had her visa revoked.
A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday blocked the government from deporting a Tufts University graduate student who was arrested this week by immigration officers and had her visa revoked.
Rumeysa Ozturk's deportation has been blocked while U.S. District Judge Denise Casper determines whether she has jurisdiction over the case, according to the order.
"This is a first step in getting Rumeysa released and back home to Boston so she can continue her studies," Ozturk's attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, said in a statement Friday. "But we never should have gotten here in the first place: Rumeysa’s experience is shocking, cruel, and unconstitutional."
Khanbabai filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in Massachusetts federal court Tuesday to release Ozturk.
Ozturk, a 30-year-old Turkish national with a valid F-1 student visa as a doctoral student at the Massachusetts school, was on her way to meet friends for iftar, a meal that breaks the day-time fast observed by Muslims during Ramadan, when she was detained on Tuesday evening, Khanbabai said in a statement Thursday.
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