A Turkish doctoral student from Tufts University in Boston who had endorsed Palestinians during Israel’s occupation of Gaza has been detained and denied on American immigration grounds.
In a petition filed in Boston federal court, attorney Mahsa Khanbabai claimed Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, had left her Somerville home on Tuesday night to meet friends and observe her Ramadan fast.
According to Ozturk’s supporters, this is the first time a Boston-area student has been detained for carrying out such activism under President Donald Trump’s rule.
Numerous foreign-born students who are legal residents of the US and who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests have been detained or sought to be detained by his administration.
Although the Trump administration claims that some protests are anti-Semitic and may threaten US foreign policy, the actions have been labeled as an assault on free speech.
Authorities determined Ozturk “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” according to Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesman for the US Department of Homeland Security, in a post on X.
According to McLaughlin, “a visa is a privilege, not a right.”
Rumesya Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University, was given the right to travel to Turkey on a visa.
According to investigations conducted by DHS + ICE, Ozturk was supporting Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that enjoys the murder of… twitter.com/3sBE6yO8db
What activities she didn’t specify. However, Ozturk’s arrest occurred a year after the student co-authored an opinion piece for the Tufts Daily, which criticized Tufts’ response to students’ requests to divest from businesses that have connections to Israel and “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”
According to Khanbabai, “her exercising her free speech rights appears to have played a role in her detention,” based on patterns we are seeing across the nation.
“Looked like a kidnapping,” the statement read.
Khanbabai filed a lawsuit late on Tuesday alleging Ozturk’s arrest was unlawful, prompting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to appoint an order to not move Ozturk out of Massachusetts without at least 48 hours’ notice.
By Wednesday afternoon, Khanbabai in a motion claimed she had been unable to locate her client in New England and had just been informed that Ozturk had been moved to Louisiana in response to the judge’s order. She requested that ICE grant her request for access to Ozturk.
Democratic lawmakers, including US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who said the arrest was “the latest in an alarming pattern that stifles civil liberties, condemned the student’s detention.” Later on Wednesday, Somerville was scheduled to stage a rally in her support.
Residents of a residential block reported being enraged by the arrest, which occurred at 5:30 p.m.
Michael Mathis, a 32-year-old software engineer whose surveillance camera captured the arrest footage, said, “It looked like a kidnapping.” They turn around and begin to grab her while covering their faces. They are obscuring their faces. They are in unmarked vehicles.
As part of its efforts to reduce immigration, the Trump administration has increased immigration arrests and strictly enforcing strict border crossing restrictions.
Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made a pledge to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters, accusing them of supporting Hamas militants, putting obstacles in US foreign policy, and being anti-Semitic.
The administration improperly conflates anti-Semitism and support for Hamas with protesters’ complaints, including those made by some Jewish organizations.
aiming at college students
According to her LinkedIn profile, Ozturk is a Fulbright Scholar and a student in Tufts’ doctoral program for child development and human development. She had previously studied at Columbia University in New York.
According to the lawsuit, she has an F-1 visa that allows students to study in the US.
Sunil Kumar, president of Tufts, said in a statement that the university had no prior knowledge of the arrest and that it would be “distressing for some members of our community, especially the members of our international community.”
Less than three weeks after Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate of Columbia University and resident of the United States, was detained, Ozturk was taken into custody. After Trump falsely accused him of supporting Hamas, which Khalil denies, he is now challenging his detention.
A South Korean-born Columbia University student who is a legal permanent resident of the US and who has participated in pro-Palestinian protests is currently being detained by federal immigration officials, which the courts have temporarily blocked.
After the Trump administration claimed her phone contained “sympathetic” photos of Hezbollah, a Lebanese doctor and assistant professor at Brown University in Rhode Island this month was denied re-entry to the US and deported to Lebanon. Rachael Alawieh expressed her disappointment with the organization’s murdered leader as a result of her religion.
