US Immigration Officers Arrest Pro-Palestine Turkish Student
Washington (Quds News Network)- A Turkish national student at Tufts University was arrested and physically restrained by US immigration officers near her apartment due to her pro-Palestine activism, with accusations that she was “engaging in activities in support of Hamas.”
According to CNN, Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to meet friends at an Iftar dinner where they would break their Ramadan fast on Tuesday.
Instead, according to her attorney, Masha Khanbabai, the 30-year-old was arrested and physically restrained by immigration officers near her apartment, close to Tufts University’s Somerville campus where she was a PhD student, Khanbabai told CNN.
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?”
🚨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
One minute after the encounter began, Ozturk is walked into a waiting SUV and driven away.
Pro-Hamas Accusations
US Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X that Ozturk “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans”.
“A visa is a privilege not a right,” she wrote, including a photo of Ozturk’s arrest.
No charges have been filed against Ozturk, her attorney said.
What We Know About Ozturk?
Ozturk was enrolled in a PhD program at Tufts University on a valid F-1 visa, which allows international students to pursue full time academic studies, according to Khanbabai.
In March 2024, Ozturk co wrote an op-ed in the school’s newspaper where the students 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,” they wrote.
They called the President and the Tufts administration to meaningfully engage with and actualize the resolutions passed by the Senate.
University Response
Tufts University officials said the school had no prior knowledge of the arrest.
The university “did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event, and the location where this took place is not affiliated with Tufts University,” Tufts president Sunil Kumar said in a written statement.
“From what we have been told subsequently, the student’s visa status has been terminated, and we seek to confirm whether that information is true.”
In an updated statement late Wednesday, which included additional guidance and resources to other international students, Tufts’ President said he shared the concerns of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell in calling the video of Ozturk’s arrest “disturbing.”
“We recognize how frightening and distressing this situation is for her, her loved ones, and the larger community here at Tufts, especially our international students, staff, and faculty who may be feeling vulnerable or unsettled by these events,” Kumar added.
The university is in touch with local, state, and federal elected officials and “hope that Rumeysa is provided the opportunity to avail herself of her due process rights,” he said.
Challenging Arrest
After her arrest, Ozturk’s attorney filed a petition in federal district court in Boston challenging the legality of her detention and requesting not to move her out of the district of Massachusetts.
“(Ozturk) shall not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without first providing advance notice of the intended move,” District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote Tuesday in an order obtained by CNN. Talwani ordered the government to respond to Ozturk’s petition by Friday.
But on Wednesday a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said she had been transferred to the Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile.
“Like all the other immigration cases related to international students and activists who have spoken up about the atrocities in Palestine, the government throws around wild accusations but provides no evidence,” Khanbabai said. “We hope Rumeysa will be released immediately.”
Crackdown on Pro-Palestine Activism
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.
On March 8, Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate of Columbia University and permanent resident, was arrested by ICE agents over his pro-Palestine activism at campus. The Trump administration is seeking to deport him.
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.
Ozturk is now the third international student known to be transferred to Louisiana after being detained by federal officers. Khalil and Badar Khan Suri were both transferred to an ICE detention facility in Jena.
On Monday, a Korean-American Columbia University student, who is a legal permanent US resident, sued Trump and other high-ranking administration officials to prevent her deportation over her pro-Palestine activism, a court filing showed.
Yunseo Chung, 21, has lived in the US since she was seven, but her legal team was informed two weeks ago that her lawful permanent resident status was being revoked, according to the court filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Chung has not yet been arrested. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials visited several residences, called for help from federal prosecutors and searched Chung’s university housing on March 13.
Chung is a junior who has participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at the school. The Trump administration is claiming that her presence in the US hinders the administration’s foreign policy agenda of halting the spread of antisemitism.
US District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald issued a temporary restraining order on Tuesday, preventing federal agents from detaining Chung. She questioned why immigration officials were pursuing her case, noting that there was no evidence of violence or foreign threats linked to her actions. A court hearing is set for May 20.
