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Liberty and Justice for…some?

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By: Kat Gingolaski, Staff Writer

Photo courtesy of Pixabay

Rumeysa Öztürk, a third-year doctoral student at Tufts Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, was detained by federal officials on March 25, 2025.1 Rumeysa is a Fullbright Scholar2 and a Turkish national with an F-1 student visa studying child and adolescent development.3 On the 25th, while walking to join her friends for an iftar dinner to break their Ramadan fast, she was arrested by masked federal officers and placed in an unmarked van.4 Her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, now joined by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Massachusetts, and Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR), were granted an emergency court order late on the 25th stating Rumeysa could not be removed from Massachusetts without proper notice.5 However, within hours, Rumeysa was transferred from the Boston suburb of Somerville, MA to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana.6 For the nearly 24-hours after, Attorney Khanbabai reported, friends, family, and counsel were unable to locate or contact Rumeysa.7

When questioned about her detainment, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson stated Rumeysa was “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist group.”8 The Department did not provide evidence of any such activities in their statement.9 Friends and colleagues stated Rumeysa was not closely involved in the pro-Palestinian protests that occurred on Tufts campus last spring.10 Her only known activism was co-authorizing an op-ed in a student newspaper with three other graduate students that called for Tufts University officials to comply with students demands to cut ties with Israel.11 This op-ed, published to the student newspaper on March 26, 2024 denounced the University for dismissing student concerns and rejected attempts by University officials to discredit the free and fair debate held by the student population at Tufts.12 One year after this op-ed was posted, Rumeysa found herself surrounded by plain-clothes agents in face coverings who handcuffed her and placed her in an unmarked van before driving away.13 The Trump Administration stated they revoked Rumeysa’s student visa on March 21st, four days before her arrest, but she was never notified of this revocation.14

Attorney Khanbabai states Rumeysa still has not been charged with any crimes as she is being held in the Louisiana ICE detention facility.15 In the past few days, Rumeysa’s attorneys have filed a petition with the U.S. District Court, asking the court to find that her arrest violated her constitutional rights of free speech and due process and request she be immediately returned to Massachusetts and released from custody.16 In response, the Justice Department argued the U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, lacked jurisdiction to decide this case.17 The government claims Rumeysa’s petition has to be filed in the jurisdiction where she was confined – Louisiana – and any challenge needs to be made in front of an immigration court, not federal court.18 On March 28th, Judge Denise Casper issued an order barring the government from deporting Rumeysa until she decides on the jurisdictional issue.19  

On March 28th, over 30 U.S. Senators and Representatives, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, released a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, calling for Rumeysa’s release and the restoration of her visa.20 In the letter, they call for due process and question ICE’s policies on identifying and arresting university students who have valid legal status.21 On March 27th, when addressing Rumeysa’s case, Rubio stated “If you come into the U.S. as a visitor and create a ruckus for us, we don’t want it. We don’t want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country.”22

Rumeysa’s arrest is one in a long string of arrests of international students who have had their student visas revoked by the Trump Administration in the past few months.23 Students have been arrested at Columbia, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Alabama in recent weeks24 with Rubio stating that over 300 foreign students’ visas have been revoked due to participation in these university protests.25

  1.  https://as.tufts.edu/epcshd/news-events/news/rumeysa-ozturk-our-student-teacher-colleague-and-friend ↩︎
  2.  https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/who-rumeysa-ozturk-turkish-national-deoprtation-us ↩︎
  3.  https://as.tufts.edu/epcshd/news-events/news/rumeysa-ozturk-our-student-teacher-colleague-and-friend ↩︎
  4.  https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/tufts-graduate-student-detained-rumeysa-ozturk-video/ ↩︎
  5.  https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/in-new-filing-rumeysa-ozturk-urges-court-to-protect-her-rights-release-her ↩︎
  6.  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/detained-tufts-student-cant-be-deported-to-turkey-without-court-order-judge-says ↩︎
  7.  https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/in-new-filing-rumeysa-ozturk-urges-court-to-protect-her-rights-release-her ↩︎
  8.  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/detained-tufts-student-cant-be-deported-to-turkey-without-court-order-judge-says ↩︎
  9. Id. ↩︎
  10.  https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/tufts-student-from-turkey-threated-with-deportation-latest-palestinian-supporter-swept-up-in-crackdown ↩︎
  11. Id. ↩︎
  12.  https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2024/03/4ftk27sm6jkj ↩︎
  13.  https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/what-we-know-about-the-case-of-the-tufts-university-student-detained-by-ice/3669105/ ↩︎
  14.  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/01/metro/rumeysa-ozturk-government-response/ ↩︎
  15.  https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/28/rumeysa-ozturk-tufts-ice#:~:text=%C3%96zt%C3%BCrk%20has%20not%20been%20charged,she%20can%20continue%20her%20studies. ↩︎
  16.  https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/detained-tufts-student-massachusetts-judge-ordered-government-120405256 ↩︎
  17. Id. ↩︎
  18.  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2025/04/01/metro/rumeysa-ozturk-government-response/ ↩︎
  19. Id. ↩︎
  20.  https://www.tuftsdaily.com/article/2025/03/members-of-congress-demand-release-of-rumeysa-ozturk-in-letter-to-ice ↩︎
  21. Id. ↩︎
  22.  https://newrepublic.com/post/193269/marco-rubio-tufts-university-student-arrest-rumeysa-ozturk ↩︎
  23. Id. ↩︎
  24.  https://www.npr.org/2025/04/02/nx-s1-5348083/legal-scholar-sees-immigrant-arrests-as-a-struggle-for-the-soul-of-the-country ↩︎
  25.  https://newrepublic.com/post/193269/marco-rubio-tufts-university-student-arrest-rumeysa-ozturk ↩︎
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