Immigration agents snatched a Tufts Ph.D. student from Turkey off the street in Boston after the Trump administration “terminated” her student visa over her alleged “activities in support of Hamas,” the Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday.
Rumeysa Ozturk, who is from Turkey and previously attended Columbia University, was “ambushed” by ICE agents while leaving her off-campus apartment for dinner with her friends, according to a statement her attorney Mahsa Khanbabai shared with the Boston Globe.
DHS Spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in an X post Wednesday that Ozturk’s visa “is a privilege not a right,” adding that “glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated.”
McLaughlin didn’t point to any specific evidence of Ozturk’s alleged terror support.
Ozturk previously wrote an op-ed that criticized Tufts’ response to the anti-Israel protests and called for the university to divest from the Jewish state — a common demand of the movement.
Dramatic video shows one plain-clothed federal agent approaching Ozturk on the street before several other feds swarm her, according to footage obtained by WCVB5.
One of the agents could be seen grabbing the phone out of her hand, before placing her hands behind her back and handcuffing her.
Khanbabai has now filed a petition with a federal court in Massachusetts requesting Ozturk’s release from ICE detention.
Tufts University President Sunil Kumar sent an email to the school’s community Tuesday confirming that a student had been detained, adding that her “visa status” was “terminated.”
The Trump administration has targeted several foreign students participating in anti-Israel protests on college campuses as part of its mass deportation effort.
Ozturk is studying child study and human development as part of Tufts’s doctoral program, according to her LinkedIn.
She previously graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree from the Teachers College.
Activists plan to rally Wednesday in response to Ozturk’s arrest in Somerville, where the Turkish student was nabbed, according to the Boston Globe.
“We must show that Boston and Massachusetts will not back down,” community activists said in a statement. “We won’t let Trump take our students without a fight.”
As part of the effort, ICE agents on March 8 nabbed former Columbia student Mahmoud Khalil, who was a leading voice in the anti-Israel protests on campus last year.
Khalil, a Syrian citizen, arrived in the US in 2022 on a student visa to pursue his master’s degree. Two years later, Khalil successfully obtained his green card.
He is currently being detained at an ICE detention center in Louisiana as his lawyers fight his proposed deportation.
https://nypost.com/2025/03/26/us-news/tufts-says-international-student-taken-into-us-custody-visa-revoked/
