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Saturday, March 29, 2025
US judge temporarily halts deportation of Tufts Turkish student who co-wrote anti-Israel op-ed
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A federal judge in Massachusetts temporarily bars the deportation of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University who voiced support for divesting from Israel amid the war with Hamas in Gaza.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was taken into custody by US immigration authorities near her Massachusetts home on Tuesday, according to a video showing the arrest by masked federal agents. US officials revoked her visa.
The US Department of Homeland Security has accused Ozturk, without providing evidence, of “engaging in activities in support of Hamas,” a group which the US government categorizes as a “foreign terrorist organization.”
Despite a Tuesday night order requiring the PhD student and Fulbright Scholar to not be moved out of Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice, she is now in Louisiana.
In the new order, US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston says that to provide time to resolve whether her court retains jurisdiction over the case, she is barring Ozturk’s deportation temporarily.
She orders the Trump administration to respond to Ozturk’s complaint by Tuesday.
Mahsa Khanbabai, a lawyer for Ozturk, calls the decision “a first step in getting Rumeysa released and back home to Boston so she can continue her studies.”
The DHS has no immediate comment.
Ozturk’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 US President Donald Trump’s administration, which has detained or sought to detain several foreign-born students who are legally in the US and have been involved in pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli protests.
The actions have been condemned as an assault on free speech, though the Trump administration argues that certain protests are antisemitic and can undermine US foreign policy.
Tufts student Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by ICE.
A video shared with GBH News shows a man in a hoodie approach her, then grab her wrists. Ozturk screams, then asks “Can I call the police?” before being told “We’re the police.”https://t.co/6dwvEmqjVr@sweetadelinevt @GBHNews pic.twitter.com/NAAgGVpp9G
— Tori Bedford (@Tori_Bedford) March 26, 2025
The Times of Israel Community.