Tufts University Offers Support for Detained Turkish Student at Court Hearing

Washington (Quds News Network)- Tufts University has publicly supported the legal case for Rumeysa Ozturk, calling for her immediate release so she can complete her studies. In doing so, Tufts becomes the first university to take such a stance following the detention and arrest of students by U.S. federal immigration agents over pro-Palestine activism.

Rumeysa Ozturk is a 30-year-old Turkish national on a student visa in the US currently being held at the South Louisiana Processing Center. She was detained by ICE agents on 25 March, who approached and physically restrained the Tufts University doctoral student and research assistant in Massachusetts.

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have claimed that she was detained for “supporting” Hamas but have not publicly provided evidence for their allegations, and she has not been charged with any crime.

In a declaration heard on Thursday at the US District Court for Massachusetts, university president Sunil Kumar said that Tufts “seeks relief so that Ms Ozturk is released without delay so that she can return to complete her studies and finish her degree”.

Kumar’s statement constituted part of an amended petition submitted to the court.

He said, “With her (Ozturk’s) consent, the university can confirm that Ms Ozturk is a third-year doctoral student in good academic and administrative standing….She is described by her faculty as a hard-working student dedicated to her studies and the Tufts community.”

Kumar added the university “has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention”.

The declaration stated that there has been an outpouring of community support for Ozturk. “These individuals have described Ms Ozturk as a valued member of the community, dedicated to her academic pursuits and committed to her colleagues.”

Kumar confirmed that Ozturk was one of several authors of an opinion piece in the student newspaper, The Tufts Daily, published on 26 March 2024, entitled, “Try again, President Kumar: Renewing Calls for Tufts to Adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions”.

The opinion piece has been cited as a potential reason for her targeting since she hasn’t taken part in any pro-Palestinian protests, but Kumar said the article didn’t violate any policies.

The op-ed criticized Tufts’ response to Senate resolutions. On March 4, the Tufts Community Union Senate passed 3 out of 4 resolutions demanding that the University acknowledge Israel’s genocide in Gaza, disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.

“These resolutions were the product of meaningful debate by the Senate and represent a sincere effort to hold Israel accountable for clear violations of international law. Credible accusations against Israel include accounts of deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide,” the authors of the piece wrote.

They called the President and the Tufts administration to meaningfully engage with and actualize the resolutions passed by the Senate.

“The University declares that this opinion piece was not in violation of any Tufts policies. Further, no complaints were filed with the University or, to our knowledge, outside of the University about this op-ed. The University maintains that the op-ed was consistent with speech permitted by the Declaration on Freedom of Expression adopted by our trustees on November 7, 2009.”

He added that the university had no information suggesting that she violated its understanding of the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

The declaration states that Tufts University has sponsored more than 1,800 people on F-1 visas and that the international student community was living in fear.

“The University has heard from students, faculty and staff who are forgoing opportunities to speak at international conferences and avoiding or postponing international travel. In the worst cases, many report being fearful of leaving their homes, even to attend and teach classes on campus.”

Lawyers for Ozturk have argued that her case should be handled by the federal court in Massachusetts or in Vermont – where she was being detained at the time her judges filed her habeas petition – while US government attorneys said it should be dismissed and go before an immigration judge.

Department of Justice lawyers argued that Ozturk had been moved to Vermont by the time US District Judge Denise Casper in Boston ordered authorities to keep her in Massachusetts and that there was no available “bed space” for her to stay in New England.

They said Ozturk’s lawyers had to file her original petition in Vermont, the jurisdiction where she was confined at the time of the filing, or in Louisiana, where she was being held when they amended their petition.

“Place of confinement cannot be swept away as a long-standing rule,” assistant US attorney Mark Sauter told judge Denise Casper.

But Ozturk’s lawyers said at the time they filed the petition, they had no way of knowing where she was. They also noted the petition was filed while Ozturk was in a vehicle within the control of Massachusetts-based Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, making the Boston court the appropriate venue.

Ozturk’s lawyers said that if the judge disagreed, then the case should be moved to Vermont. They said the detention violates Ozturk’s constitutional rights, including free speech and due process. They’ve asked the judge to order that she be immediately returned to Massachusetts and released from custody.

The case was adjourned after it was heard to allow Casper to make a decision.

Arrest Video

Neighborhood surveillance video obtained by the advocacy group Muslim Justice League appears to show six plainclothes officers surrounding Ozturk as she walked alone on a sidewalk. One officer wearing a hat and hoodie grabs her arms, causing Ozturk to shriek in fear as another pulls out a concealed badge on a lanyard and confiscates her cell phone.

Shortly afterward, the officers all pull cloth coverings over their mouths and noses, some of them wearing sunglasses, as one of them restrains Ozturk’s hands behind her back.

As the officers say, “We’re the police,” a person not seen in the video can be heard responding, “Yeah, you don’t look like it. Why are you hiding your faces?”
One minute after the encounter began, Ozturk is walked into a waiting SUV and driven away.

🚨URGENT: MPAC demands the immediate release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts student and F-1 visa holder abducted by DHS agents with no charges—on her way to an Iftar.

This is a chilling violation of civil liberties during Ramadan.

📢 Speak out. Call your Reps. #freerumeysa pic.twitter.com/qqLKJOhCVL

— MPAC (@mpac_national) March 26, 2025

Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Activism

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that the State Department may have revoked more than 300 visas of students.

During a press conference in Guyana, Rubio said the Trump administration was looking every day for “these lunatics”. His comments were in response to a question about Ozturk.
“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 visas,” Rubio said.

“At some point, I hope we run out because we’ve gotten rid of all of them, but we’re looking every day for these lunatics that are tearing things up.”

Rubio confirmed that the State Department revoked Ozturk’s visa and said Washington would take away any visa that has been previously issued if students participated in actions such as “vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus”. Rubio did not say if Ozturk participated in those activities.

Ozturk is one of several foreign nationals connected to prestigious American universities who were arrested under the Trump administration for their pro-Palestine and anti-genocide activism.

In March, pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil was arrested by ICE. Khalil had been one of the leaders of pro-Palestinian encampment at Columbia University last spring.

He was taken from his student apartment building in lower Manhattan, and then to an immigration detention facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, before being transferred to Louisiana.

In a post on Truth Social, US President Donald Trump described the arrest of Khalil as “the first arrest of many to come”.

“We know there are more students at Columbia and other Universities across the country who have engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity, and the Trump Administration will not tolerate it,” Trump said.

Columbia University also lost $400 million in federal funding after being named on a list of schools accused of failure to address antisemitism. 60 universities could also face funding cuts if federal investigations show evidence that they have permitted antisemitic behavior.

As he campaigned for a second term in the White House, Trump pledged to stop the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that erupted after Israel launched its deadly war on Gaza and deport any foreign students involved.

Upon taking office, he began to issue executive actions signalling he would carry out his threats.

“To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you,” Trump said in a White House fact sheet.

“I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.”

Earlier, Yale University suspended Iranian scholar Helyeh Doutaghi from its law school after a Jewish news website, which uses AI to generate articles, accused her of being a member of a ‘terrorist group.’ Doutaghi said she is a “loud and proud” supporter of Palestinian rights.

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and post-doctoral fellow working at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, was detained by US customs agents, accusing him of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”. The US administration intends to deport him after labeling him as a threat to U.S. foreign policy due to his and his wife’s support for Palestinian rights.

Columbia student Yunseo Chung, a 21-year-old permanent U.S. resident, also faces a deportation order but a judge ruled that she cannot be detained.

An Iranian doctoral student at the University of Alabama, Alireza Doroudi, and a Russian medical researcher at Harvard University, Kseniia Petrova, were both detained by immigration agents as well.

Momodou Taal, a doctoral candidate in Africana studies and dual citizen of the UK and the Gambia who participated in pro-Palestinian protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza, also left the US this week.

He cited fears of detention and personal safety following ongoing threats of deportation by the Trump administration. Last month, his attorneys said that he was asked to turn himself in and that his student visa was being revoked.