What we know about the Tufts University PhD student detained by federal agents

By Gloria Pazmino, Andy Rose and Yash Roy, CNN

(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 Mahsa 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.

Now, she is being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

While no charges have been filed against Ozturk, her attorney told CNN, Ozturk’s visa status has been terminated, according to a statement released Thursday by Tufts President Sunil Kumar.

A federal judge in Boston issued an order late Friday to stop Ozturk from being deported.

Judge Denise Casper wrote in the order that Ozturk “shall not be removed from the United States until further order from this court.” Casper’s order directs immigration authorities to stop deportation proceedings against Ozturk until she can determine whether the Boston court has jurisdiction to decide if Ozturk was lawfully detained.

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.

In her order, Casper cited Columbia graduate and Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil’s case – specifically referencing a New York judge’s decision to not allow Khalil to be deported until a court settles whether it has jurisdiction over his case.

Khalil and Ozturk’s cases share some striking similarities – both were arrested near their homes without notice, both were transferred across state lines and jurisdictions and both have been transferred to Louisiana.

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, 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 lawyers praised the judge’s decision Friday.

“This is a first step in getting Rumeysa released and back home to Boston so she can continue her studies. But we never should have gotten here in the first place: Rumeysa’s experience is shocking, cruel, and unconstitutional,” Khanbabai said in a statement.

Who is Rumeysa Ozturk?

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.

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.

Sudden arrest caught on camera

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.”

“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.

Detained in Louisiana

After her arrest on Tuesday night, Ozturk was driven to multiple government offices in New England, a spokesperson for Ozturk’s legal team said.

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.

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 Tuesday, District Judge Denise Casper 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.

She is scheduled to face an initial hearing in removal proceedings April 7 in Louisiana, according to an amended petition filed Friday.

Her attorneys have asked a federal court in Massachusetts to assert jurisdiction over her case and release her on bail as the litigation moves forward.

The petition also asks the court to restore her F-1 student visa. The state department revoked her visa on March 21 but she was not notified until she received a notice to appear from ICE after her arrest on March 25, the petition says.

The court filing describes how Ozturk was taken to Louisiana by ICE agents after her arrest. Without access to her medications or legal counsel Ozturk was transferred to a staging facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, then moved again to another facility in southern Louisiana where she’s currently being held.

A Turkish consulate representative traveled to the ICE office in Burlington, Massachusetts, Wednesday to inquire about Ozturk but was denied information on her location, according to the filing.

Ozturk’s attorneys, who were unable to reach her for nearly 24 hours after her arrest, contacted area hospitals fearing she could’ve had a medical episode, the filing says.

“Rumeysa’s friends frantically tried to find out more information about what had happened to her,” her counsel wrote in the filing. “For more than 24 hours after her arrest, Rumeysa’s friends, family and legal counsel did not hear from her and could not speak to her.”

Ozturk had an asthma attack while in transit to Louisiana, according to the filing that says she told her attorney when they made contact a day after her arrest.

Her lawyers also allege that ICE failed to notify them, the court and DOJ lawyers that she was being transferred to Louisiana prior to that transfer, even though the Massachusetts court had entered the order requiring notification.

Ozturk is detained at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, according to ICE’s online detainee locator 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.”

This story has been updated with additional information.

CNN’s Lauren del Valle, Amanda Musa, Braden Walker, Caroll Alvarado, Zenebou Sylla, Gul Tuysuz, Sana Noor Haq, Jennifer Hansler and Benjamin Gittleson contributed to this report.

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