Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk arrived back in Massachusetts on Saturday night after six weeks in immigration jail.
Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student from Turkey, was ordered released from ICE custody by a federal judge on Friday. She spoke briefly at Boston Logan International Airport upon her return to the city on Saturday night.
“America is the greatest democracy in the world and I believe in those values that we share,” Ozturk told reporters. “I have faith in the American system of justice.”
ICE agents detained Ozturk on a Boston street on March 25, a caught-on-camera arrest that multiple bystanders believed to be a kidnapping because the agents were not uniformed.
Ozturk was one of about 1,000 international students whose visas were briefly canceled by President Trump’s administration. Many visas were later restored but Ozturk remained subject to deportation proceedings in ICE custody in Louisiana.
The federal government is still working to deport Ozturk and she will be permitted to attend remotely for hearings in Louisiana. She was released after filing a habeas corpus petition and that case will proceed in Vermont.
Key Trump advisor Stephen Miller said Friday the administration is seeking ways to suspend habeas corpus, the legal right of people to challenge their detention by the government.
“I would say that’s an option we’re actively looking at,” Miller said outside the White House. “Look, a lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.”
With News Wire Services
