A Turkish national and doctoral student at Tufts University has been detained by US Department of Homeland Security agents without explanation, her lawyer said Wednesday, March 26. Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, had just left her home in Somerville on Tuesday night when she was stopped, lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai said in a petition filed in Boston federal court.
Video obtained by The Associated Press appears to show six people, their faces covered, taking away Ozturk's phone as she yells and is handcuffed. "We're the police," members of the group are heard saying in the video. A man is heard asking, "Why are you hiding your faces?"
Khanbabai said Ozturk, who is Muslim, was meeting friends for iftar, a meal that breaks a fast at sunset during Ramadan. "We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her. No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of," Khanbabai said in a statement. Ozturk has a visa allowing her to study in the United States, Khanbabai said.
Neighbors said they were rattled by the arrest, which happened at 5:30 pm on a residential block. "It looked like a kidnapping," said Michael Mathis, a 32-year-old software engineer whose surveillance camera captured the arrest. "They approach her and start grabbing her with their faces covered. They're covering their faces. They're in unmarked vehicles."
Tufts University President Sunil Kumar said in a statement that the school learned that authorities detained an international graduate student and the student's visa had been terminated. "The university had no pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event," Kumar said.
Kumar did not name the student, but university spokesperson Patrick Collins confirmed that Ozturk is a doctoral student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Democratic US Rep. Ayanna Pressley called the arrest "a horrifying violation of Rumeysa's constitutional rights to due process and free speech." "She must be immediately released," Pressley said in a statement. "We won't stand by while the Trump Administration continues to abduct students with legal status and attack our fundamental freedoms."
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called the video "disturbing." "Based on what we now know, it is alarming that the federal administration chose to ambush and detain her, apparently targeting a law-abiding individual because of her political views," she said. "This isn't public safety, it's intimidation that will, and should, be closely scrutinized in court."
US District Judge Indira Talwani issued an order giving the government until Friday to answer why Ozturk was being detained. Talwani also ordered that Ozturk not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without 48 hours' advance notice.
But as of Wednesday evening, the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement's online detainee locator system listed her as being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana.
A senior DHS spokesperson confirmed Ozturk's detention and the termination of her visa. "DHS and (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) investigations found 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. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is common sense security," the spokesperson told the AP.
Ozturk was one of four students last March who wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily criticizing the university's response to its community union Senate passing resolutions that demanded Tufts "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide," disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.
Students and faculty elsewhere also have recently had visas revoked or been blocked from entering the US because they attended demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians. President Donald Trump's administration has cited a seldom-invoked statute authorizing the secretary of state to revoke visas of noncitizens who could be considered a threat to foreign policy interests.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in a park later Wednesday, with speaker after speaker demanding her release and accusing both major political parties of failing to protect immigrants and stand up for Palestinians.
"Free Rumeysa Ozturk now," the crowd chanted, along with traditional protest slogans such as "Free, free Palestine." Many held Palestinian flags and homemade signs supporting her and opposing ICE.
The Turkish Embassy in Washington said it was keeping in regular contact with Ozturk's family, monitoring the situation closely and engaged in "initiatives" with the State Department and ICE.