Appeals Court Rules Tufts University Student Arrested by ICE Must Be Returned to Vermont

The student was arrested by plainclothes officers after her visa was revoked.

In this image taken from security camera video, Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Mass., on March 26, 2025. AP Photo

A federal appeals court ruled on May 7 that a Tufts University student must be returned to Vermont after she had been arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and sent to Louisiana.

The three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled unanimously to deny the government’s appeal of a lower-court order, and they have directed that the student, Rumeysa Ozturk, be sent back to Vermont by May 14.