The trial of Rümeysa Öztürk, the Turkish Tufts University student detained by immigration officials in Louisiana, has been delayed to May 20, Houston Consul General Ahmet Akıntı said on Thursday, adding that Turkish officials are closely following the case.
Pointing out that Öztürk has been transferred to a detention center in Louisiana after being detained in Massachusetts’ Boston on March 25, Akıntı told Anadolu Agency (AA) that, “During the period following Rümeysa Öztürk's arrival in Louisiana, as the consul general of Türkiye in Houston, I met with Rümeysa Öztürk several times by phone and in person, stating that our state stands by her.”
Akıntı recalled that Öztürk's first hearing regarding her immigration status and the cancellation of her F1 student visa by the U.S. State Department was held on April 16 at the Immigration Court in Louisiana, and that Öztürk attended the hearing with her lawyers.
He further said that her demand for release on bail was not accepted and added: “The judge also ruled that the next hearing regarding whether the U.S. State Department has the authority to review the legality of the decision to cancel Rümeysa Öztürk's F1 student visa will be held on May 1, 2025. However, the hearing in question was postponed to May 20.”
Akıntı also said that a separate case regarding the application against Öztürk’s detention was ongoing in the Vermont District Court, and said: “Although the court in question ordered Rümeysa Öztürk to be transferred to Vermont by May 1, 2025 in its decision announced on April 18, 2025, the U.S. government appealed this decision. For this reason, the transfer process of our citizen to Vermont has stopped at this stage.”
Öztürk, a Fulbright scholar and Ph.D. student in child and human development at Tufts University, was detained on March 25 by masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents outside her apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Her arrest came shortly after she was targeted online by the pro-Israel website Canary Mission, which aimed at her for co-authoring an op-ed in the campus newspaper criticizing Tufts University's response to Israel's brutal assault on Gaza.
Her lawyers argue that the arrest and continued detention violate her constitutional rights, including her First Amendment right to free speech and Fifth Amendment protections.
