SOMERVILLE, Mass. — A man in a navy blue hoodie approached Tufts University graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk on a street in Somerville near her off-campus apartment earlier this week and asked, “Hey, ma’am, can I talk to you for a second?”
Six federal agents, with their faces covered, are then seen taking away Ozturk’s phone as she yells and is handcuffed around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, video of her detainment obtained by Boston 25 News appeared to show.
“We’re the police,” members of the group are heard saying in the video. A nearby man is also heard asking, “Why are you hiding your faces?”
Ozturk was on her way to meet friends for iftar, a meal that breaks a fast at sunset during Ramadan, according to her lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai.
“No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of,” Khanbabai said in a statement.
Ozturk has a visa allowing her to study in the United States, Khanbabai also noted.
Tufts University President Sunil Kumar said in a statement that the school learned that authorities detained an international graduate student and the student’s visa had been terminated.
A petition filed by Khanbabai states that Ozturk was unlawfully detained. They are asking the court to vindicate her constitutional rights, find she was unlawfully detained, and order her release.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued an order giving the government until Friday to answer why Ozturk was being detained. Talwani also ordered that Ozturk not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without 48 hours advance notice.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator system indicates Ozturk is being held in Basile, Louisiana.
A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed Ozturk’s detention and the termination of her visa.
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“Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national and Tufts University graduate student who was granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa. DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “A visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”
People who know Ozturk believe she was targeted for participating in pro-Palestine rallies on the campus of Tufts in 2024. She also wrote an op-ed demanding that Tufts acknowledge the Palestinian genocide and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Tufts University confirms she is a PhD student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Kumar announced a hotline to protect immigrants from ICE.
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