A Turkish graduate student at Tufts University has been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, prompting legal action and public outcry as the Trump administration enforces an executive order targeting foreign students linked to pro-Palestinian campus activism.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was taken into custody on Tuesday evening outside her apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, while en route to meet friends for an iftar meal during Ramadan. Surveillance footage captured the incident, showing six masked individuals-identified by witnesses as federal agents-handcuffing her and removing her phone.
"We're the police," one agent can be heard saying in the video. A bystander asked, "Why are you hiding your faces?" The scene left neighbors shaken. "It looked like a kidnapping," said Michael Mathis, a 32-year-old software engineer who recorded the arrest. "They're in unmarked vehicles. They're covering their faces. They just grabbed her."
Ozturk's attorneys say she held a valid F-1 visa at the time of her detention and that no charges have been filed. "We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her," Khanbabai Immigration Law said in a statement. "Rumeysa was heading to meet with friends to break her Ramadan fast ... when she was detained."
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued an emergency habeas ruling late Tuesday blocking Ozturk's removal from Massachusetts, instructing federal officials to provide justification for her detention by Friday. "Once notice is given, Ozturk shall not be moved out of the district for at least 48 hours," the judge ordered.
The detention follows President Donald Trump's January 30 executive order, which directs the cancellation of student visas for individuals suspected of sympathizing with Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. The order, part of a broader crackdown following Hamas's October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, has led to multiple visa revocations for students and faculty who attended pro-Palestinian demonstrations or signed critical campus petitions.
"To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice," Trump stated in a White House fact sheet. "Come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you."
Ozturk, a doctoral candidate in child development at Tufts, previously studied at Columbia University on a Fulbright scholarship. She co-authored a March 2024 op-ed in The Tufts Daily calling for the university to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide" and divest from companies linked to Israel. Her lawyers declined to comment on whether her writings or participation in student resolutions factored into her arrest.
Tufts University President Sunil Kumar said the school had no prior knowledge of the arrest. "The university had no pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event," Kumar said in a statement. "We will continue to provide information, support, and resources in the days ahead."
Tufts, which receives $115.2 million annually from the National Institutes of Health, including $88.3 million in direct costs, has come under scrutiny from federal agencies amid wider investigations into how universities are handling campus unrest.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have not issued public statements. A spokesperson for the Turkish Embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
Colleagues and professors have rallied to Ozturk's defense. "She's not an activist person," said Reyyan Bilge, a psychology professor at Northeastern University who has co-authored academic papers with Ozturk. "Over the 10 years I've known her, she's never spoken badly to anyone else, let alone being antisemitic or racist."
