U.S. immigration authorities detained a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University near Boston late Tuesday and revoked her visa for holding pro-Palestinian views during Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, her attorney and the university said.
Rumeysa Öztürk's supporters say her detention is the first known immigration arrest of a Boston-area student engaged in such activism to be carried out by President Donald Trump's administration, which has detained or sought to detain several foreign-born students who are legally in the U.S. and have been involved in pro-Palestinian protests.
The actions have been condemned as an assault on free speech, while the Trump administration says that some protests can undermine foreign policy.
The 30-year-old Turkish national was taken into custody near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday evening while she was heading to meet with friends to break her Ramadan fast, according to her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai.
Khanbabai quickly filed a lawsuit arguing that Öztürk had been unlawfully detained. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to not move Öztürk out of Massachusetts without first providing advance notice and to keep her in the state for at least 48 hours thereafter.
Öztürk remains in ICE custody, according to the agency's website. Representatives for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Trump administration has targeted international students as it seeks to crack down on immigration, including ramping up immigration arrests and sharply restricting border crossings.
Trump and his Secretary of State Marco Rubio in particular have pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters, accusing them of supporting Hamas resistance group, posing hurdles for U.S. foreign policy, and of being anti-semitic.
Öztürk is a Fulbright Scholar and student in Tufts' doctoral program for Child Study and Human Development, according to her LinkedIn profile, and had previously studied at Columbia University in New York.
Last year, Öztürk co-authored an opinion piece in the university's student paper, the Tufts Daily, that criticized the school's response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide."
She has been in the country on an F-1 visa, which allows living in the United States while studying, according to the lawsuit Khanbabai filed on her behalf.
"Based on patterns we are seeing across the country, her exercising her free speech rights appear to have played a role in her detention," Khanbabai said.
Advocates were planning a rally later Wednesday in Somerville supporting Khanbabai, who they said had been "abducted" by the Trump administration, according to an online poster supporters were circulating online.
Tufts President Sunil Kumar in a statement said the school had no advanced knowledge of the arrest, which he recognized would be "distressing to some members of our community, particularly the members of our international community."
Öztürk was taken into custody less than three weeks after Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and lawful permanent resident, was similarly arrested. He is challenging his detention after Trump, without evidence, accused him of supporting Hamas, which Khalil denies.
Federal immigration officials are also seeking to detain a South Korean-born Columbia University student who is a legal permanent U.S. resident and has participated in pro-Palestinian protests, a move blocked by the courts for now.
A Lebanese doctor and assistant professor at Brown University in Rhode Island this month was denied re-entry to the U.S. and deported to Lebanon after the Trump administration alleged that her phone contained photos "sympathetic" to Hezbollah. Dr. Rasha Alawieh said she does not support the group but held regard for its slain leader because of her religion.
The Trump administration has also targeted students at Cornell University in New York and Georgetown University in Washington.
