A Tufts graduate detained by ICE has been thrown a potential lifeline after a federal judge stepped in to temporarily bar her deportation.
PhD student and Fulbright scholar Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was snared by masked immigration agents close to her Massachusetts home on Tuesday, as shown in dramatic surveillance footage.
The US Department of Homeland Security has accused Ozturk, without providing evidence, of ‘engaging in activities in support of Hamas’, a Palestinian group recognized by the US government as a ‘foreign terrorist organization.’
Officials revoked Ozturk’s visa and moved her to Louisiana – despite an order requiring agents not to move her out of Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice.
US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston dramatically intervened in the case on Friday by temporarily barring the Turkish national’s deportation to provide time to resolve whether her court retained jurisdiction over the case.
She ordered the Trump administration to respond to Ozturk’s complaint by Tuesday.
Mahsa Khanbabai, a lawyer for Ozturk, called the decision ‘a first step in getting Rumeysa released and back home to Boston so she can continue her studies.’
The DHS had no immediate comment.
Oncu Keceli, a spokesperson for Turkey’s foreign ministry, said efforts to secure her release continued, adding consular and legal support was being provided by Turkish diplomatic missions in the U.S.
‘Our Houston Consul General visited our citizen in the center where she is being held in Louisiana on March 28. Our citizen’s requests and demands have been forwarded to local authorities and her lawyer,’ Keceli said in a post on X.
Ozturk’s arrest came a year after she co-authored an opinion piece in Tufts’ student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to ‘acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.’
The op-ed added that the university’s response to the resolutions ‘has been wholly inadequate and dismissive of the Senate, the collective voice of the student body.’
On Thursday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Ozturk’s visa had been revoked while citing this op-ed as he issued a warning to other students looking to carry out similar activism.
Rubio said he had no qualms over detaining and attempting to deport student activists even if they have not broken the law, arguing that they lied on their visa applications by going on to support Hamas.
‘If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States, and with that visa participate in that sort of activity, we’re going to take away your visa,’ he said.
When asked how many student visas had been revoked, he said: ‘It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa.’
Ozturk’s arrest footage sparked backlash this week as footage showed her being surrounded by six undercover ICE agents, who handcuffed her and took her into a vehicle as she walked to a meal with friends.
She was then taken to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana as the government fights to deport her, the same facility where fellow student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Badar Khan Suri were also transferred.
A lawyer for Ozturk has sued to secure her release, and on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union joined her legal defense team, filing a revised lawsuit, opens new tab saying her detention violates her rights to free speech and due process.
President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters and has accused them of supporting Hamas, being antisemitic and posing foreign policy hurdles.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the Trump administration conflates their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and support for Hamas.