Turkish student at Tufts University is latest Palestinian supporter swept up in US crackdown

BOSTON (news agencies) — A Turkish student detained by federal officers as she walked along a street in a Boston suburb is the latest supporter of Palestinian causes to be swept up in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants who express their political views.

Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, a doctoral student at Tufts University, was swiftly moved out of Massachusetts, another case of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sending immigrants taken into custody to detention centers or deporting them altogether before a federal judge has a chance to weigh in and possibly halt the actions.

Ozturk, who was detained Tuesday shortly after she left her home in Somerville, had been moved to an ICE detention center in Louisiana by the time her lawyer went to court and a judge ordered her to be kept in Massachusetts, U.S. government lawyers said in a court document Thursday. They said they made her lawyers aware that she was being moved and facilitated contact with her Wednesday night.

A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said federal authorities detained Ozturk after an investigation found she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” The department did not provide evidence of that support.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration has revoked the visas of at least 300 people, including Ozturk: “We do it every day.”

“We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist, to tear up our university campuses,” Rubio told reporters during a stop in Guyana.

Friends and colleagues of Ozturk said she was not closely involved in pro-Palestinian protests that broke out on campuses last spring. Her only known activism, they said, was co-authoring an op-ed in a student newspaper that called on Tufts University to engage with student demands to cut ties with Israel.

“The only thing I know of that Rumeysa organized was a Thanksgiving potluck,” said Jennifer Hoyden, a friend who studied with Ozturk at Columbia University’s Teachers College. “There’s a very important distinction between writing a letter supporting the student Senate and taking the kind of action they’re accusing her of, which I’ve seen no evidence of.”

Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in an attack that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and during which about 250 hostages were seized. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 50,000 people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, and destroyed much of the enclave.