These detained foreign nationals have been released from ICE custody
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Rumeysa Ozturk at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts on May 10 following her release. Photo: Joseph Prezioso / AFP via Getty Images
Some foreign nationals who were arrested in recent weeks under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown have since been ordered released by judges.
The big picture: The freedom of a handful of these detainees throws a wrench in the administration's efforts to detain and deport people who are legally in the U.S..
- Still, several others remained detained, including Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident who has been in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for more than two months.
- Khalil's attorneys have been arguing for him to be let free — in part by pointing to the release of others in similar situations, like Badar Khan Suri.
Immigrants who have been ordered released include:
Badar Khan Suri
A judge on May 14 ordered the release of Suri, a Georgetown University graduate student from India, on bond eight weeks after his arrest.
- Suri, who was teaching at the D.C. institution on a student visa, was arrested at his Arlington, Virginia, home by masked agents who said they were from the DHS and that his visa had been revoked.
- Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin alleged on X that Suri has connections with Hamas.
- Suri's lawyer told the media his client is "innocent" and that he was being "punished" because his U.S. citizen wife is of Palestinian heritage.
Rümeysa Öztürk
Tufts University student Rümeysa Öztürk was released from jail on May 9 following a six-week detention in a Louisiana facility.
- A federal judge granted bail and ordered the Trump administration to free her.
- Öztürk, a Turkish doctoral candidate, was detained in March for writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed in the Tufts Daily that criticized her university and urged it to divest from companies tied to Israel.
- The government alleged she was "engaged in activities in support of Hamas" but did not explain what those were.
- Öztürk was in the U.S. legally on a student visa when she was detained.
Mohsen Mahdawi
Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia University student who was detained during what he believed to be a U.S. naturalization interview, was released in April while his case proceeds.
- Mahdawi, a legal U.S. resident and green card holder from Palestine, was not charged with a crime.
Fabian Schmidt
Fabian Schmidt, a permanent U.S. resident originally from Germany, was detained after returning from a trip to Luxembourg on March 7.
- He was released in May after nearly two months in a detention center.
Juan Francisco Méndez
Juan Francisco Méndez, an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant, was ordered to be released earlier this month but remains in custody, his lawyer told local outlets.
- Méndez was arrested in New Bedford on April 14, in an incident captured on video showing an ICE agent smashing open his car window to detain him.
Go deeper: Tracking the foreign nationals detained by ICE as tourists or U.S. residents
Editor's note: This article has been updated with further details in the case of Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil.
Axios' Steph Solis contributed to this report.
