US Judge Halts Deportation of Turkish PhD Student Rumeysa Ozturk
Ozturk, a PhD student in child development at Tufts University, was detained in March 2025 in Somerville, Massachusetts, by plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents after co-authoring a pro-Palestinian opinion article in a student newspaper. Her attorneys said the judge determined that the Department of Homeland Security lacked legal grounds to expel her from the country.
“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government,” Ozturk said in a statement released by the ACLU. She added that while the harm she endured could not be undone, the ruling showed “some justice can prevail after all.”
The Trump administration had claimed that Ozturk’s activities made her removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act, arguing that they posed adverse foreign policy consequences and amounted to support for Hamas.
Her lawyers maintain that the allegations were retaliatory and stemmed solely from her protected speech.
After her arrest, Ozturk was transferred across several states — from Massachusetts to Vermont and later Louisiana — without her attorneys being notified, court filings indicate. A federal judge in Vermont later ordered her release on bail six weeks afterward.
Her legal team challenged the detention as unconstitutional, asserting that it violated her First and Fifth Amendment rights. In December, a federal judge ruled that the government had improperly terminated her student visa record, allowing her to resume her studies. The government has appealed this ruling, though her visa record remains reinstated.
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