U.S. judge orders release of detained Tufts University student

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted “Trump lost again” outside a Vermont courthouse Friday after U.S. District Judge William Sessions III ruled that the federal government unlawfully arrested Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk. The Turkish student was arrested in March and detained in Louisiana before her case was moved to Vermont. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Ozturk, along with other detained students, posed a threat to the nation’s foreign policy interests. But Sessions noted that the only proof the government provided for this claim was an op-ed written in Ozturk’s student newspaper, according to reporting by WBUR. The piece accused Israel of genocide. Sessions said that the op-ed falls under First Amendment protections.

Has the White House responded? When asked about the issue during a press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said she had to review the specifics of the order. She accused federal judges of interfering in the government’s foreign policy decisions and said the administration has the right to deport immigrants and revoke visas.

“It is a privilege, not a right, to come to this country on a visa,” she added.

Dig deeper: Read my report on Project Esther, a Heritage Foundation report that calls for deporting student activists to combat anti-Semitism.