Federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily blocks the deportation of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University who was detained after expressing support for Palestinian Arabs.
A federal judge in Massachusetts has temporarily blocked the deportation of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University who was detained by US immigration officials after expressing support for Palestinians amid Israel’s war in Gaza, Reuters reported.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was arrested near her home in Massachusetts on Tuesday by masked federal agents, as shown in a video circulating online. US authorities have revoked her visa.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has accused Ozturk of “engaging in activities in support of Hamas”.
Oncu Keceli, a spokesperson for Turkey’s foreign ministry, said Turkish diplomatic missions in the US are actively working on Ozturk’s case, providing both legal and consular assistance.
“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 stated on X.
Ozturk’s arrest follows her co-authorship of an opinion piece in Tufts’ student newspaper a year ago, in which she criticized the university’s response to student demands for divestment from companies tied to Israel and calls to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”
A legal challenge was swiftly launched to secure her release. On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) joined her defense, arguing in a revised lawsuit that her detention violates her rights to free speech and due process.
In an order issued Friday, US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston ruled that Ozturk’s deportation be temporarily halted to allow time to determine whether her court has jurisdiction over the case.
She ordered the Trump administration to respond to Ozturk’s complaint by Tuesday.
Ozturk’s arrest is part of the Trump administration’s efforts to arrest and deport foreign students involved in violence or illegal activity at anti-Israel protests on campuses.
Several current and former Columbia University students have been arrested and face deportation. Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was detained on March 8 as part of the Trump administration’s effort to combat what it describes as antisemitic and “anti-American” campus protests.
He previously served as a spokesperson for pro-Palestinian Arab demonstrators opposing Israel’s military actions in Gaza. A federal judge ruled this past Tuesday that Yunseo Chung, a Columbia University student who participated in campus protests against Israel’s military actions in Gaza and was arrested at one of those protests, cannot be detained while contesting orders for her deportation.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national who teaches and studies at Georgetown University, was arrested last week at his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, and told that his student visa had been revoked for allegedly spreading Hamas propaganda on social media.
