Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, was detained by federal agents without any explanation, leaving her lawyer shocked and baffled, according to a statement released Wednesday. The lawyer has filed a lawsuit in Boston federal court demanding that authorities provide a reason for the detention.
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03-30, 2025According to court documents filed by her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, the 30-year-old Ozturk was detained by agents from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday evening as she left her Somerville residence to meet friends. A video obtained by the Associated Press shows six masked individuals taking Ozturk's phone, and her shouts and the sound of her being handcuffed can be heard in the video. The masked individuals identified themselves as police.
In the video, someone is heard questioning, "Why are you covering your faces?" Khanbabai stated that Ozturk, who is Muslim, was on her way to join friends for iftar, the meal eaten after sunset during Ramadan. "We do not know where she is being held, and we have not been able to contact her. To our knowledge, Rumeysa has not been charged with anything to date," the lawyer said in a statement. Khanbabai emphasized that Ozturk holds a visa that allows her to study in the United States.
Neighbors stated that the arrest, which took place at approximately 5:30 p.m. local time in a residential area, left them feeling uneasy. "It looked like a kidnapping," said Michael Mathis, a 32-year-old software engineer whose surveillance camera recorded the arrest. "They approached her, started grabbing her, and they were all masked. They were all covering their faces, driving unmarked vehicles."
Tufts University President Sunil Kumar issued a statement on Wednesday stating that the university had received reports that a federal authority detained an international graduate student and that the student's visa had been terminated. Kumar stated, "The university had no prior knowledge of this matter and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event." Kumar did not disclose the student's name, but university spokesperson Patrick Collins confirmed that Ozturk is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Democratic U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley called the arrest "a horrific violation of Rumeysa's constitutional rights to due process and freedom of speech." In a statement, she said, "She must be released immediately. We will not stand by and allow the Trump administration to continue to kidnap students with legal status and attack our fundamental freedoms." Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called the video "disturbing." She said, "Based on what we know now, the federal government's choice to ambush and detain her, apparently targeting a law-abiding citizen because of her political views, is appalling. This is not public safety, it is intimidation, and it should be closely scrutinized in court."
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued an order requiring the government to respond by Friday to the reasons for Ozturk's detention. Talwani also ordered that Ozturk not be transferred outside of the Massachusetts district without 48 hours' advance notice. However, as of Wednesday evening, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) online detainee locator system indicated that she was being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official confirmed Ozturk's detention and the termination of her visa. The spokesperson told the Associated Press: "DHS and (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) investigations revealed that Ozturk engaged in activity in support of Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization that enjoys murdering Americans. A visa is a privilege, not a right. Praising and supporting terrorists who murder Americans is grounds for revocation of visa issuance. This is common-sense security measure."
In March, Ozturk was one of four students who co-authored an opinion piece in The Tufts Daily criticizing Tufts University's response to a resolution passed by its Community Union Senate that called on Tufts to "recognize the Palestinian genocide," disclose its investments, and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel. Friends say Ozturk was not closely involved in protests against Israel.
But after the op-ed was published, her name, photo, and work history were included on the Canary Mission website, which claims to document "individuals and organizations that promote hatred of the United States, Israel, and Jews on college campuses across North America." The op-ed was the only cited example of Ozturk's "anti-Israel activism." Recently, other students and faculty elsewhere have had their visas revoked or been prevented from entering the United States for participating in demonstrations or publicly expressing support for Palestinians.
Prior to attending Tufts University, Ozturk received a master's degree in developmental psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University in 2021. Reyyan Bilge, a psychology professor at Northeastern University and a friend of Ozturk, described her as a "soft-spoken, kind, and gentle person" who is focused on her research and not closely involved in campus protests. The two initially met at Istanbul Sehir University, where Bilge supervised her thesis, and they later collaborated on cognitive research and co-authored papers. They remained in close contact after Ozturk came to the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2018 to pursue further studies. "In the ten years that I have known her, she has never said anything bad about anyone, let alone anti-Semitic or racist," Bilge said.
