A Turkish student who was seized screaming off the streets by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was nothing but smiles after being released from detention. 

Tufts University student, Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was whisked away by ICE agents on March 25 off the streets of Boston, Massachusetts, after her visa had been unknowingly revoked. 

She was taken to New Hampshire and Vermont before ultimately being flown to a Basile, Louisiana, detention center, which has been criticized for its allegedly poor conditions and possible abuse toward female inmates.

She was released on Friday and was seen emerging from the lock-up facility wearing a soft pink shirt and a white hijab. 

As she went to talk to reporters, the graduate student could be seen beaming ear-to-ear. 

‘Thank you for the support and love,’ she told reporters and fans outside the jail, KATC reported. ‘I am a little bit tired, so I will take some rest.’ 

Her supporters could be heard screaming: ‘Rumeysa, Rumeysa, we love you!’ 

Ozturk had recently coauthored an article that was critical of her school’s response to the Israel-Hamas War.

 The Trump administration says she showed support for a ‘designated terrorist organization’, believed to be Hamas, but has not offered further specifics on this allegation. 

Hamas’ shock attack on Israel on October 7 2023 led to the murders of 1,195 people.

Israel’s subsequent bombing campaign in Gaza, aimed at destroying Hamas, has killed around 50,000 people, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, which is run by Hamas. 

Ozturk was among those who were vehemently against Israel’s war and has said she believes she was targeted by the State Department for her speech. Likewise, her lawyers argue her First Amendment rights were violated.

The piece criticized the university’s response to its community union Senate passing resolutions demanding that Tufts ‘acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,’ disclose its investments, and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.

It said: ‘These resolutions were the product of meaningful debate by the Senate and represent a sincere effort to hold Israel accountable for clear violations of international law.’

In March, footage of her being taken in shows a group of six people approaching her from angles, all of whom are masked and wearing gold identification badges.

As two men approach her, she can be heard screaming out in horror, and is visibly shaking in the clip.

‘We’re the police,’ members of the group are heard saying in the video. A man is heard on camera saying, ‘Why are you hiding your faces?’

The group put her in handcuffs and grab her backpack from her before pulling her towards a black SUV parked across the street.

In a statement at the time of her arrest, ICE explained that its investigation ‘found Ozturk engage in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.’

‘A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is common sense security.’

Shortly after her arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said her visa had been taken away.

Rubio has maintained that Ozturk and the other student activists that engaged in anti-Israel protests were detained because they lied on their visa applications and did not mention their alleged support for Hamas.

‘If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States, and with that visa participate in that sort of activity, we’re going to take away your visa,’ he said.

However, it came out in mid-April that the State Department found no evidence of Ozturk being linked to Hamas or antisemitism.

Ozturk was released Friday on order of US District Judge William Sessions in Burlington, allowing her to return to her studies.

Judge Sessions released Ozturk pending a final decision on her claim that she’s been illegally detained following the op-ed. 

The student had previously detailed her growing asthma attacks in detention and her desire to finish her doctorate degree focusing on children and social media while appearing remotely at her bail hearing from the Louisiana center.

‘Completing my Ph.D. is very important to me,’ she testified. She had been on track to finish her work in December when she was arrested. 

Her travel home information has not been made available.