Trump administration detains Turkish student at Boston university, revokes visa

US immigration authorities have detained and revoked the visa of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University near Boston who voiced support for Palestinians in Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.

Rumeysa Ozturk's supporters say her detention, late on Tuesday, is the first known immigration arrest of a Boston-area student engaged in such activism to be carried out by President Donald Trump's administration, which has detained or sought to detain several foreign-born students who are legally in the US and have been involved in pro-Palestinian protests.

The actions have been condemned as an assault on free speech, though the Trump administration argues certain protests are anti-Semitic and can undermine US foreign policy.

A video of the arrest showed masked plainclothes agents taking the 30-year-old into custody near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday evening, when, according to her lawyer, she was heading to meet friends to break her Ramadan fast.

US department of homeland security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X authorities determined Ozturk “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,” McLaughlin said.

She did not specify what specific activities were engaged in by Ozturk, a Fulbright Scholar and student in Tufts' doctoral programme for child study and human development who had been in the country on an F-1 visa to study.

Her arrest came a year after Ozturk co-authored an opinion piece in the school's student paper, the Tufts Daily, that criticised Medford, Massachusetts-based Tufts' response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.

“Based on patterns we are seeing across the country, her exercising her free speech rights appears to have played a role in her detention,” said Mahsa Khanbabai, Ozturk's lawyer.

After Ozturk's arrest, Khanbabai filed a lawsuit late on Tuesday arguing she was unlawfully detained, prompting US district judge Indira Talwani in Boston that night to order US immigration and customs enforcement to not move Ozturk out of Massachusetts without at least 48 hours' notice.

Yet by Wednesday night, Ozturk was in Louisiana, despite the court order, Khanbabai said. She called the claims against Ozturk “baseless” and said people should be “horrified at the way DHS spirited away Rumeysa in broad daylight”.

Democratic US Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts described her arrest as “the latest in an alarming pattern to stifle civil liberties”. Her arrest fuelled a large demonstration in Somerville, with protesters holding signs saying “Resist”, “Defend student voices” and “Release Rumeysa Ozturk now!”

She was arrested as part of the Trump administration's targeting of international students as it seeks to crack down on immigration, including ramping up immigration arrests and sharply restricting border crossings.

Trump and his secretary of state Marco Rubio in particular have pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters, accusing them of supporting Hamas militants, posing hurdles for US foreign policy and of being anti-Semitic.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the administration wrongly conflates their criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism and support for Hamas.

Tufts president Sunil Kumar said the school had no advance knowledge of the arrest, which he recognised would be “distressing to some members of our community, particularly the members of our international community”.

The Turkish embassy in Washington said it was in touch with the US state department, immigration and customs enforcement and other authorities about Ozturk's detention. “Every effort is being made to provide consular services and legal support to protect the rights of our citizen,” it said.

Ozturk was taken into custody less than three weeks after Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and lawful permanent resident, was similarly arrested. He is challenging his detention after Trump, without evidence, accused him of supporting Hamas, which Khalil denies.

Federal immigration officials are also seeking to detain a South Korean-born Columbia University student who is a legal permanent US resident and has participated in pro-Palestinian protests, a move blocked by the courts for now.

A Lebanese doctor and assistant professor at Brown University in Rhode Island was denied re-entry to the US this month and deported to Lebanon after the Trump administration alleged her phone contained photos “sympathetic” to Hezbollah. Rasha Alawieh said she does not support the militant group but held regard for its slain leader because of her religion.

The Trump administration has also targeted students at Cornell University in New York, Georgetown University in Washington and the University of Alabama.

Reuters