CNN —
As the sun began to set Tuesday over Somerville, Massachusetts, Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to meet friends at an Iftar dinner where they would break their Ramadan fast.
But she would never make it to the gathering, according to her attorney. Instead, the 30-year-old was arrested and physically restrained by immigration officers near her apartment, close to Tufts University’s Somerville campus where she was a PhD student, lawyer Masha Khanbabai told CNN.
Six plainclothes officers surrounded Ozturk as she walked alone, neighborhood surveillance video appears to show. The officers did not show their badges until she was restrained, the video shows.
Ozturk is one of several foreign nationals affiliated with prestigious American universities to be arrested for purported activities related to terrorist organizations amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown. They include Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent Palestinian activist taken into custody this month outside his Columbia University apartment.
Ozturk “engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Wednesday in a statement without specifying what those alleged activities were.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio “determined” Ozturk’s alleged activities would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told CNN Thursday. She declined to provide further details about Ozturk’s alleged activities or how they could pose adverse consequences to US foreign policy.
DHS cited the same provision in the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate who was arrested by immigration officers earlier this month.
Asked about Ozturk’s case Thursday, Secretary of State Rubio suggested without evidence she was involved in disruptive student protests over Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said.
To date, the Trump administration has revoked hundreds of visas, Rubio said. “Might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day,” he added.
Meanwhile, Ozturk’s visa status has been terminated, according to a statement released Thursday by Tufts President Sunil Kumar.
No charges have been filed against Ozturk, her attorney told CNN. She is being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Here’s what we know about her arrest:
Ozturk was enrolled in a PhD program at Tufts University on a valid F-1 visa, which allows international students to pursue full-time academic studies, Khanbabai said.
A student of psychology, Ozturk has been studying in the US since 2018, her brother Asim said in a Thursday statement on behalf of the family.
“She went to America after winning a Fulbright scholarship, successfully completed her master’s degree at Columbia University, and then started her doctorate at Tufts University in Boston,” Asim Ozturk wrote in a statement in Turkish he posted to X.
Ozturk was working on her dissertation when she was arrested and had about 10 months left to complete her doctorate, Asim said.
In March 2024, Ozturk cowrote an op-ed in the school’s newspaper in which she criticized Tufts’ response to a student government group’s call for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel because of the conflict in Gaza, among other demands.
“Credible accusations against Israel include accounts of deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide,” the op-ed says.
Ozturk’s brother, Asim, said he believes she is being targeted for her beliefs.
“Apart from expressing her opinion within the framework of freedom of expression without engaging in any provocative or aggressive action regarding the Palestine issue, she has not taken any action,” Asim added. “It seems that she has been subjected to the activities of ICE, which has been on a witch hunt in the post-Trump period, against those who support Palestine.”
Tufts University officials had no prior knowledge of her arrest, Kumar has said.
Student Deportations
Kumar shared the concerns of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell in calling the video of Ozturk’s arrest “disturbing,” he said in an updated statement late Wednesday that included additional guidance and resources for international students.
“We recognize how frightening and distressing this situation is for (Ozturk), her loved ones, and the larger community here at Tufts, especially our international students, staff, and faculty who may be feeling vulnerable or unsettled by these events,” Kumar added.
“Let me assure you that the university is doing everything in our power to support our community, as we continue to learn more information about this troubling event in real time,” a Tufts official wrote to university alumni in an email obtained by CNN.
Hundreds protested Ozturk’s detention Wednesday night at a park on the edge of the Tufts’ campus, CNN affiliate WBZ reported.
“The fact that someone can just be disappeared into the abyss for voicing an idea is absolutely horrifying,” rally attendee Sam Wachman told WBZ.
The university is in touch with local, state and federal elected officials and “hope that Rumeysa is provided the opportunity to avail herself of her due process rights,” he said.
The Turkish government is monitoring the case and staying in touch with Ozturk’s family, it said.
“Initiatives have been made with the US Department of State, Immigration and Customs Enforcement Unit and other authorized units,” the Turkish embassy said on X, on Wednesday. “Every effort is being made to provide the necessary consular services and legal support to protect the rights of our citizens.”
A US State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the specifics of the case.
“Due to privacy and other considerations, and visa confidentiality, we generally will not comment on Department actions with respect to specific cases,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN.
Surveillance video released Wednesday and obtained from a neighbor by the advocacy group Muslim Justice League appears to show six plainclothes officers casually approaching Ozturk as she walks alone on a sidewalk.
One officer wearing a hat and hoodie grabs her arms, causing Ozturk to shriek in fear as another pulls out a concealed badge on a lanyard and confiscates her cell phone.
Shortly afterward, the officers all pull cloth coverings over their mouths and noses, some of them wearing sunglasses, as one of them restrains Ozturk’s hands behind her back.
As the officers say, “We’re the police,” a person not seen in the video can be heard responding, “Yeah, you don’t look like it. Why are you hiding your faces?”
One minute after the encounter began, Ozturk is walked into a waiting SUV and driven away.
ICE has not responded to CNN’s request for comment on Ozturk’s case.
The use of facial coverings is similar to an account of the arrest of Georgetown University fellow Badar Khan Suri, whose attorney Nermeen Arastu told CNN the officers who detained Khan Suri were “brandishing weapons.”
Video: Why are Department of Homeland Security agents in masks arresting students?
01:35 – Source: CNN
“ICE agents came in the night, took him captive, taking him from his wife and children, and hauled him away to an unknown location before transferring him to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana, far from his family and attorneys,” Arastu added on Suri.
After her arrest on Tuesday night, Ozturk was driven to multiple government offices in New England, a spokesperson for Ozturk’s legal team.
The next morning, Ozturk was flown to southern Louisiana where she is being detained.
Throughout that period of time, Ozturk was not charged or given the opportunity to speak with a lawyer, according to the statement.
She was able to speak with her lawyer roughly 24 hours after her arrest, the statement said.
Following her detainment, Khanbabai filed a petition in federal district court in Boston, challenging the legality of her detention and asking she not be moved out of Massachusetts.
“(Ozturk) shall not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without first providing advance notice of the intended move,” District Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote Tuesday in an order.
The government must respond to the motion no later than Friday, March 28, Talwani said.
However, Ozturk was already detained outside Massachusetts when federal officials got the court’s order, government attorney Mark Sauter said in a court filing Thursday morning, CNN affiliate WFXT reported.
CNN reached out Thursday to Sauter for comment.
In her court motion demanding immediate access to her client, Khanbabai said Ozturk had been held without access to her medications, one of which was for asthma attacks, CNN affiliate WCVB reported.
Ozturk is detained at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, according to ICE’s online detainee locater system.
Ozturk is now the third international student known to be transferred to Louisiana after being detained by federal officers. Khalil and Georgetown fellow Badar Khan Suri were both transferred to an ICE detention facility in Jena.
“Like all the other immigration cases related to international students and activists who have spoken up about the atrocities in Palestine, the government throws around wild accusations but provides no evidence,” Khanbabai said. “We hope Rumeysa will be released immediately.”
CNN’s Amanda Musa, Braden Walker, Caroll Alvarado, Zenebou Sylla, Gul Tuysuz, Sana Noor Haq, Jennifer Hansler and Benjamin Gittleson contributed to this report.
