Rumeysa Ozturk returned to Massachusetts on Saturday evening, eyes welling with joy and gratitude at the end of her six-week odyssey in federal custody, a case that stirred outrage over President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
A flight carrying Ms. Ozturk, a Turkish citizen studying at Tufts University on a student visa, touched down at Boston Logan International Airport one day after a federal judge in Vermont ordered that she be immediately released from a detention facility in Louisiana.
Speaking in a room at the airport, she flashed smiles and looked happy and relaxed, but also became visibly emotional at times. Ms. Ozturk thanked supporters for their kindness and expressed love for the country that imprisoned her and is still trying to deport her.
“America is the greatest democracy in the world,” she said, adding, “I have faith in the American system of justice.”
Ms. Ozturk, a fifth-year doctoral student, was among more than a thousand international students whose visas were canceled by the federal government and who have faced deportation. The moves came as the Trump administration escalated its attack on higher education, saying its goal was to root out antisemitism.
Ms. Ozturk had written an opinion piece in the student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to pro-Palestinian demands. Her supporters denied that she was antisemitic, and said that she was detained in retaliation for her speech in violation of the First Amendment.
On Saturday, her friends and former professors bounced between elation at her release and pain that Ms. Ozturk, a Fulbright scholar who specializes in children’s media and who is known as a studious rule follower, was detained in the first place.
Gulay Kaplan, who has known Ms. Ozturk for a decade, drove 11 hours to see her at the airport, and was excited and emotional. When she finally saw her, she said all she could do was cry.
Ms. Kaplan said she was shocked at what Ms. Ozturk had to endure, describing her friend as kind and softhearted, adding, “She doesn’t have the bone to hate anyone.” Ms. Kaplan said it had left her and her other friends scared. If this could happen to Ms. Ozturk, she said, “this could happen to any one of us for saying anything.”
On Friday, Judge William K. Sessions III of the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont said Ms. Ozturk’s detention would potentially chill “the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens.” Judge Sessions, an appointee of former President Clinton, also said the government, which has accused Ms. Ozturk of engaging “in activities in support of Hamas,” had not introduced any evidence other than the pro-Palestinian opinion essay that Ms. Ozturk co-authored.
A message left for the Department of Homeland Security was not immediately returned. In response to an earlier development in Ms. Ozturk’s case this week, a spokeswoman said that “a visa is a privilege, not a right” and that the department would “continue to fight for the arrest, detention and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country.”
In late April, the Trump administration abruptly restored the ability of thousands of international students to study in the country legally, though it maintained that their legal status could still be terminated in the future. Despite that decision, Ms. Ozturk had remained in custody until Friday.
“Rumeysa, my sister — our sister — we welcome you home with open arms,” said Representative Ayanna Pressley at the airport. She was joined by Senator Edward J. Markey in greeting Ms. Ozturk. “We never forgot about you. You are loved, you are seen, and we will not rest until you are fully exonerated, your visa is restored and you are free to continue your studies and your service to our community.”
The arrest of Ms. Ozturk in March was captured on surveillance footage and drew condemnation from students, college leaders and immigration advocates nationwide. She was walking down a sidewalk in Somerville, Mass., when she was surrounded by armed immigration agents and whisked into a van. She was driven to New Hampshire, and then to Vermont, and then flown to a federal detention facility in Louisiana.
While being detained, Ms. Ozturk testified that she experienced increasingly severe asthma attacks, the first being on the plane to Louisiana. When she sought treatment, she said, the detention center’s medical staff responded condescendingly. She said she had been confined with 23 other women in a space meant for 14 people.
On Saturday, Ms. Ozturk thanked friends who helped her through the experience. Some read books to her over the phone and sent many letters of support. She said an adviser sent Ms. Ozturk’s dissertation proposal to the detention facility.
“So much love,” Ms. Ozturk said.
She also expressed concern for those immigrants who are still held at the facility. “Please don’t forget about all the wonderful women” there, she said.
Reyyan Bilge, a psychology professor at Northeastern, knew Ms. Ozturk when she was an undergraduate in Turkey, and
described an emotional roller coaster over the last six weeks, starting with her disbelief that her former student had been arrested. She said Ms. Ozturk was “one of the best students I’ve ever had.” Dr. Bilge followed every development in the case, logging into each court hearing, and received another shock, this time joyful, at Friday’s hearing.
“You hear the words that you’ve been waiting to hear for a really long time,” she said in a phone interview. “But at the same time, you really want to pinch yourself. Is it real? Are they going to allow her to leave?”
Ms. Ozturk’s release was in fact delayed when the government sought to make her wear an ankle monitor, prompting Judge Sessions to issue a second order on Friday for her to be released without it.
Even though Ms. Ozturk was freed, a government lawyer on Friday said a deportation proceeding against her would continue in immigration court. But her long-term outlook is believed to be more favorable for her now than it was before the federal court released her, experts said.
Whatever comes next, and despite the experience of the past six weeks, Ms. Ozturk appeared hopeful on Saturday.
“I still believe in the values we share,” she said.
