A Turkish student detained by federal police as she walked on the streets of a Boston suburb is the latest supporter of Palestinian causes to be swept up in the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants who have expressed their political views.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, a doctoral student at Tufts University, had been moved out of Massachusetts by the time her lawyer went to court and a judge ordered her to be kept in the state, US government lawyers said in a court document on Thursday.
The lawyers said that Ozturk, who was detained on Tuesday shortly after she left her home in Somerville, was moved to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centre in Basile, Louisiana. They said they made her lawyers aware that she was being moved there and they helped facilitate contact with her Wednesday night.
A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said federal authorities detained Ozturk and revoked her visa after an investigation found she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organisation that relishes the killing of Americans.”
“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” the spokesperson added. “Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is common sense security.”
The DHS did not provide evidence of Ozturk’s support of Hamas, which is designated by the US government as a terrorist organisation.
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.
“To my knowledge, the only thing I know of that Rumeysa organised was a Thanksgiving potluck,” said Jennifer Hoyden, a close friend of Ozturk’s who studied with her 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.”
Ozturk’s arrest appears to be part of President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport students who, he said, engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” a label the administration has applied broadly to those who criticize Israel and protest its military campaign in Gaza.
Earlier this month, immigration enforcement agents arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a legal US resident and Palestinian activist who played a prominent part in protests at Columbia last year. He is now facing possible deportation.
Video obtained by The Associated Press appears to show six people, all but one with their faces covered, taking away a shouting Ozturk’s phone before she is handcuffed.
“We’re the police,” members of the group are heard saying in the video. A bystander is heard asking, “Why are you hiding your faces?”
Ozturk, who is Muslim, was meeting friends for iftar, a meal that breaks a fast at sunset during Ramadan, according to her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai.
Khanbabai, who said no charges have been filed against Ozturk, filed a petition seeking her release Tuesday and then an emergency motion Wednesday.
Associated Press
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