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.

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 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.

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”.