US: Tufts University student detained for pro-Palestine views transferred to Louisiana
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national on a student visa, is currently being held in detention in Louisiana, according to her lawyer, Middle East Eye can reveal.
A Massachusetts judge ordered her not to be removed from the state, but it is unclear whether she was moved before or after the order was delivered.
Masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached and physically restrained the Tufts University doctoral student while on the street in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday before taking her into custody for “pro-Palestine” views. She is being held at the South Louisiana Processing Center.
Chilling video footage of the incident on Tuesday shows a man approaching Ozturk, while she was on the phone with her mother, and grabbing her wrists. Five other agents surrounded her, removed her backpack, and placed her in handcuffs before escorting her away.
Ozturk, looking terrified, could be heard screaming that she had done nothing wrong.
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The Boston Globe reported that neighbours had observed unmarked cars surveilling the location for two days before she was detained.
Ozturk was working as a research assistant and undertaking her PhD at the Eliot-Pearson department of child study and human development at Tufts University.
She holds a master’s from Columbia University’s Teachers College and graduated from the developmental psychology programme with a focus on children’s media in 2020. She is a grantee of the prestigious Fulbright Scholar programme, which aims to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and people from other countries.
In a university-wide email, Tufts University president Sunil Kumar said that an international student had been taken into custody outside an off-campus apartment building in Somerville, and he had been told the student’s visa had been terminated. Kumar said the university was still confirming whether this was true. The email did not identify Ozturk by name.
Kumar also said the university had no “pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event”.
Reyyan Bilge, an assistant teaching professor in psychology at Northeastern University, who has known Ozturk for a decade, says she broke down today after discovering what had happened to her former student and research assistant.
Bilge, a Tufts alumnus, said Ozturk was one of her first students when she began teaching at Istanbul Sehir University. She described Ozturk as a “remarkable person".
“She's one of the most exceptional students that I have had. She's remarkable, really ambitious and hardworking. She's a nice, quiet and peaceful person who cares about others. When you talk to her, you see she's not a threat to anyone. She’s not aggressive in any way," Bilge told MEE.
“I did not for a second think that ICE would target a student with a valid visa,” she added.
“We're talking about a successful student who earned a Fulbright scholarship to come from Turkey to do her master's and then continued to do her PhD. We're talking about a person who fully deserves where she is today.”
Ozturk was on an F-1 student visa through Tufts University.
Student activists were shocked to hear she had been apprehended, as they were not aware of her participating in pro-Palestine protests. One student, who did not wish to be identified, said that she had not seen Ozturk at any of the pro-Palestine protests at Tufts University.
Friends of Ozturk believe she may have been targeted because of a doxxing campaign for co-authoring a March 2024 opinions article in the university newspaper, Tufts Daily, renewing calls for the university to adopt the Tufts Community Senate Resolutions, to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, apologize for University President Sunil Kumar’s statements, disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel”.
Ozturk’s photo and other identifying information were posted on Canary Mission in February. Canary Mission is a website that documents individuals and organisations it considers to be antisemitic.
"The arrest and disappearance of Rumeysa has deeply impacted the larger university community here in Boston. Many of us are shaken and in mourning. It has brought these terrifying developments right to our doorstep," a student organiser at Tufts University who wished to remain anonymous told MEE.
"I do not remember her being involved in the encampments."
Community members plan to hold a rally on Wednesday evening at Powder House Square Park in Somerville. Ozturk’s detention marks the first known instance of a student activist being arrested by federal immigration officials in Boston.
Petition to remain in Massachusetts
After Ozturk was detained, her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, filed on Tuesday a habeas petition in Massachusetts federal court for her to be released from detention.
In response, US District Court judge Indira Talwani ordered ICE not to move Ozturk out of the state without prior notice.
Ozturk “shall not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without first providing advance notice of the intended move”, she outlined in court documents.
Judge Talwani also ordered ICE to submit a written explanation for relocating Ozturk and to notify the court 48 hours before any effort takes place to allow the judge time to review the information.
Talwani ordered ICE officials to respond to the petition by Friday.
It is unclear why Ozturk was transferred to Louisiana with the court order in place.
A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson shared a statement with MEE on Ozturk's detention.
“Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national and Tufts University graduate student, granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa. DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged 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 commonsense security."
Ozturk’s detention follows in the wake of the detention of several students who are on visas or green card holders over the last few weeks after the Trump administration has sought to target students with pro-Palestine views.
In a high-profile case, free speech advocates and immigration attorneys have strongly denounced the Trump administration’s 8 March arrest of recent Columbia graduate and activist Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful US resident and green card holder.
His detention has also sparked fear among international students in Greater Boston that their legal status in the country could be at risk.
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