Turkish student at Tufts University detained, video shows masked people
handcuffing her
[March 27, 2025]
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, KATHY McCORMACK and MICHAEL CASEY
SOMERVILLE, Mass. (AP) — A Turkish national and doctoral student at
Tufts University has been detained by U.S. Department of Homeland
Security agents without explanation, her lawyer said Wednesday.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, had just left her home in Somerville on Tuesday
night when she was stopped, lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai said in a petition
filed in Boston federal court.
Video obtained by The Associated Press appears to show six people, their
faces covered, taking away Ozturk's phone as she yells and is
handcuffed.
“We’re the police,” members of the group are heard saying in the video.
A man is heard asking, “Why are you hiding your faces?”
Khanbabai said Ozturk, who is Muslim, was meeting friends for iftar, a
meal that breaks a fast at sunset during Ramadan.
“We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact
her. 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 said.
‘This isn’t public safety, it's intimidation'
Neighbors said they were rattled by the arrest, which happened at 5:30
p.m. on a residential block.
“It looked like a kidnapping,” said Michael Mathis, a 32-year-old
software engineer whose surveillance camera captured the arrest. “They
approach her and start grabbing her with their faces covered. They’re
covering their faces. They’re in unmarked vehicles.”
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.
“The university had no pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share
any information with federal authorities prior to the event,” Kumar
said.
Kumar did not name the student, but university spokesperson Patrick
Collins confirmed that Ozturk is a doctoral student in the Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley called the arrest “a horrifying
violation of Rumeysa’s constitutional rights to due process and free
speech.”
"She must be immediately released,” Pressley said in a statement. “We
won’t stand by while the Trump Administration continues to abduct
students with legal status and attack our fundamental freedoms.”
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell called the video
“disturbing.”
“Based on what we now know, it is alarming that the federal
administration chose to ambush and detain her, apparently targeting a
law-abiding individual because of her political views,” she said. “This
isn’t public safety, it’s intimidation that will, and should, be closely
scrutinized in court.”
Court says not to remove Ozturk from the state, but she is listed as
being held in Louisiana
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.
But as of Wednesday evening, the U.S. Immigration and Custom
Enforcement’s online detainee locator system listed her as being held at
the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana.
A senior DHS spokesperson confirmed Ozturk's detention and the
termination of her visa.
“DHS and (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) investigations found
Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist
organization that relishes the killing of Americans. 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 common
sense security,” the spokesperson told the AP.
Ozturk cowrote article criticizing university response to Palestinian
issues
Ozturk was one of four students last March who wrote an op-ed in The
Tufts Daily criticizing the university's response to its community union
Senate passing resolutions that demanded Tufts “acknowledge the
Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from
companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.
[to top of second column]
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In this image taken from security camera video, Rumeysa Ozturk, a
30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by
Department of Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville,
Mass., Tuesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo)
Friends said Ozturk was not otherwise closely involved in protests
against Israel. But after the piece was published, her name, photo
and work history were featured by Canary Mission, a website that
says it documents people who “promote hatred of the U.S.A., Israel
and Jews on North American college campuses.” The op-ed was the only
cited example of “anti-Israel activism” by Ozturk.
Students and faculty elsewhere also have recently had visas revoked
or been blocked from entering the U.S. because they attended
demonstrations or publicly expressed support for Palestinians.
President Donald Trump 's administration has cited a seldom-invoked
statute authorizing the secretary of state to revoke visas of
noncitizens who could be considered a threat to foreign policy
interests.
Supporters rally in Somerville
Hundreds of people demonstrated in a park later Wednesday, with
speaker after speaker demanding her release and accusing both major
political parties of failing to protect immigrants and stand up for
Palestinians.
“Free Rumeysa Ozturk now,” the crowd chanted, along with traditional
protest slogans such as “Free, free Palestine.” Many held
Palestinian flags and homemade signs supporting her and opposing
ICE.
Zoi Andalcio, a Somerville business owner, said he came out with his
wife and 3-year-old son to speak against the “maddening” arrest of
Ozturk and others.
“I’m outraged like everybody else about these disappearances,
kidnappings of legal noncitizens, who may or may not have spoken out
against the atrocious foreign policy of the United States
government,” Andalcio said.
Roz Nazzaro, who held a sign that read “Hands Off,” said she fears
the country is heading into an era of “Nazism” in which just
disappear.
“There is no distinction between undocumented immigrants, documented
immigrants, green cards,” said Nazzaro, a retired college
administrator from Winchester, Massachusetts. “It’s going to be the
citizens next, if you’re the wrong color, wear a hijab.”
‘She’s never spoken badly to anyone’
Before attending Tufts, Ozturk obtained a master’s from the
Developmental Psychology program at Teachers College at Columbia
University in New York, according to an alumni spotlight article in
2021.
Reyyan Bilge, a psychology professor at Northeastern University and
friend, described Ozturk as a “soft spoken, kind and gentle soul,”
deeply focused on research and not closely involved in the campus
protests.
The two first met at Istanbul Sehir University, where Bilge
supervised her thesis, before working on cognitive research and
publishing papers together. They remained close after Ozturk arrived
in the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2018.
“Over the 10 years I’ve known her, she’s never spoken badly to
anyone else, let alone being antisemitic or racist,” Bilge said.
Turkish diplomats contact State Department and ICE
The Turkish Embassy in Washington said it was keeping in regular
contact with Ozturk’s family, monitoring the situation closely and
engaged in “initiatives” with the State Department and ICE.
It added in a statement on the social platform X that it was making
“every effort” to provide consular services and legal support to
protect its citizens' rights.
___
Offenhartz reported from New York, and McCormack from Concord, New
Hampshire. Robert Badendieck in Istanbul contributed.
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