President Donald Trump's administration continues to suffer setbacks in an attempt to expel pro-Palestinian student protesters as courts investigate whether student rights have been violated.
On Wednesday, a separate court issued orders related to two of the most compelling cases: Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk.
In New York, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ordered the move of 30-year-old Turkish student Ozturk to Vermont no later than May 14.
The ruling marks a rejection of the Trump administration's call for a delay in transfers and leaving Oztulke in Louisiana, where she has been in immigration detention since late March.
“We are grateful for the court’s refusal to the government’s attempt to isolate her from the community and legal counsel because she filed a release case,” said Esha Bhandari, attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union representing Ozturk.
Additionally, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to provide details about its leader Khalil, who described Columbia student protests, as a threat to U.S. foreign policy.
The latest ruling in the Ozturk case highlights a practice that has become common under the Trump administration: Many foreign students involved in the pro-Palestinian protest movement have moved to detention centers far away from their homes.
Ozturk's ordeal began on March 25, when six transparent police officers arrested her home in the suburbs of Boston, Massachusetts, where she went to school.
Supporters believe that the doctoral student from Turkiye and Fulbright scholar Ozturk aims to co-wrote an opinion piece in her student newspaper calling on Tufts University to recognize Israel’s war on Gaza as genocide.
The United States is a long-time ally of Israel and supports its military movement in Gaza. The Trump administration accused Ozturk of “engaging in activities of Hamas, a foreign terrorist group that is interested in killing Americans,” although no evidence has been provided.
According to her attorney, Oztulke was reportedly detained outside his home and reportedly whipped on the state border within 24 hours, first in Vermont and later in Louisiana.
Critics describe these rapid transfers as a means of subverting due process and separating foreign students from legal resources they could have otherwise borrowed.
In the case of Ozturk, the chaos led her attorneys to file a petition for her release in Massachusetts because they didn't know where she was when she filed her paperwork.
On April 18, the lower court ruled that Ozturk must be returned to Vermont by May 1 because it weighed her habeas petition: such a complaint challenges the legality of people's detention.
"No one should be arrested for his political views," her lawyer Bhandari said in a statement.
But the Trump administration appealed, seeking an emergency stay in Ozturk's transfer to Vermont.
However, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals refused the request (PDF). It said the government failed to show any "irreparable harm" that Ozturk's transfer would cause.
"On the one hand, the conflict between the government's non-specific financial and administrative issues, and on the other hand, faces the risk of major constitutional damage to Ozturk, and we have little difficulty concluding that "the hard balance is firmly expressed in her favor," the court wrote.
Although Ozturk is expected to be transferred to Vermont, where she will hear her habeas order, the Trump administration plans to continue the deportation lawsuit in Louisiana.
However, the Court of Appeal explained that given that Oztuk can show up these hearings through video conferences, it should not be a challenge for the Trump administration.
"The government asserted that this would face the difficulty of arranging Ozturk's remote immigration procedures in Louisiana," the court wrote. "But the government has not raised any disputes, and Ozturk's legal and practical possibility of remote participation in the dismissal process."
The Trump administration has the option to submit a decision to the Supreme Court.
Similarly, Khalil faces deportation lawsuits in Louisiana, while his habeas protection petition was heard in New Jersey at his home in New York City.
On March 8, he became the first high-profile case for student protesters arrested for deportation. Agents from immigration and customs law enforcement officers arrived at his Columbia University student housing building, his wife, an American citizen, photographed him being handcuffed and taken away.
Khalil himself is a permanent resident of the United States and recently graduated from the Columbia International Public Affairs School. He is of Palestinian descent.
On Tuesday, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in New Jersey rejected a bid from the Trump administration for the transfer of Khalil's habeas petition to Louisiana.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Farbiarz ordered the Trump administration to conduct a specific assessment of the risks posed in the United States.
Trump Secretary of State Marco Rubio cited the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 to justify Karrier's detention and deportation. Less used legal provisions allow state secretaries to remove non-citizens who may have “potentially serious adverse policy consequences.”
But what impact Rubio may have on Khalil's situation so far. The student protested that the leader was charged with no crime.
Judge Fabiaz also asked the Trump team to provide a catalog of every case in which U.S. officials adopt the law. The Trump administration is also expected to appeal the judge's order.