Trump admin detains Turkish student
BOSTON—US immigration authorities have detained and revoked the visa of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University near Boston who had voiced support for Palestinians in Israel’s war 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 United States and have been involved in pro-Palestinian protests.
The actions have been condemned as an assault on free speech, though the Trump administration argues that certain protests are antisemitic and can undermine US foreign policy.
A video of the arrest showed masked and plainclothes agents taking the 30-year-old Turkish national into custody near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday evening, when, according to her lawyer, she was heading to meet with friends to break her Ramadan fast.
US Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X, authorities determined Ozturk “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”
