Immigration authorities reportedly detained a Turkish national student at Tufts University in Massachusetts on Tuesday evening.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a student in the university’s doctoral program for Child Study and Human Development, was arrested while walking to an Iftar dinner when she was “ambushed” by federal authorities, her lawyer told The Boston Globe.
The arrest of Ozturk took place slightly after 5 p.m. Tuesday on Mason Street in Somerville near the Tufts campus, according to a resident who lives nearby and said he witnessed the arrest. (The eyewitness spoke of condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation from the federal government.)
While walking his dog, he saw a woman screaming outside a house. Half a dozen officers in plainclothes and wearing masks were in the vicinity, he said. Some were handcuffing her while she cried and said, “OK, OK, but I’m a student,” he recalled.
Another officer was watching passersby.
After they handcuffed Ozturk, they placed her in an SUV, the man said. As the witness left the scene, another officer pulled a mask over his face and then silently followed the witness for a block, the man recalled.
Video footage of Ozturk’s arrest shows multiple agents approaching her on the street before handcuffing her and taking her into custody.
Watch the moment Tufts PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk is detained by ICE agents on her way to iftar, reportedly while speaking to her mother on the phone. via @clashreport pic.twitter.com/uLMBik8knm https://t.co/U5OQf4Kalw
— Rabia İclal Turan (@iclalturan) March 26, 2025
The reasons for Ozturk’s arrest are not yet known. Her attorney explained that her information showed up on a website that gathers information on pro-Palestinian activists and others who have been accused of antisemitism. However, she “was not known as a prominent organizer in the school’s pro-Palestinian movement,” The Globe reported.
Ozturk is the latest foreign student to be targeted by the Trump administration as it seeks to remove pro-Hamas elements from the country. Earlier this month, immigration authorities detained Mahmoud Khalil, a leader in the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia University.
Tufts University President Sunil Kumar sent an email to students and faculty explaining that the school “received reports that the student was taken into custody outside an off-campus apartment building in Somerville,” according to The Boston Globe. The email further stated that Ozturk’s visa status had been “terminated.”
Ozturk was listed by an organization named Canary Mission as one of the authors who wrote an opinion essay in the school newspaper criticizing its leaders for how they responded to demands that Tuft’s “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” The New York Times reported.
Canary Mission "documents people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews," according to the organization's website. "We investigate hatred across the North American political spectrum, including the far-right, far-left and anti-Israel activists."
Reyyan Bilge, an assistant teaching professor at Northeastern University, was puzzled by Ozturk’s arrest, telling the Globe that she is a “soft-spoken, kind woman who cares deeply about how children are portrayed in the media.”
He said the student is “not antisemitic” and “definitely not anti-Israel.”
The authorities have not yet given a reason for Ozturk's arrest or the termination of her F-1 visa status. Her whereabouts also remain unknown.
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