A federal judge in Massachusetts has temporarily barred the deportation of a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, who voiced support for Palestinians in Israel’s war in Gaza and was detained by US immigration officials.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, was forcibly taken into custody by masked federal agents in broad daylight near her Massachusetts home on Tuesday. Immigration officials also revoked her visa.
On Friday, US District Court Judge Denise Casper gave the government until Tuesday evening to respond to an updated complaint filed by Ozturk’s lawyers.
“To allow the Court’s resolution of its jurisdiction to decide the petition, Ozturk shall not be removed from the United States until further order of this court,” the judge wrote.
Ozturk’s arrest came a year after she co-authored an opinion piece in Tufts’ student newspaper criticising the university’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.
Friends have said Ozturk was not otherwise closely involved in pro-Palestine protests against Israel.
A lawyer soon after sued to secure her release, and on Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union joined her legal defence team, filing a revised lawsuit saying her detention violates her rights to free speech and due process.
On Saturday, Oncu Keceli, a spokesperson for Turkiye’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that efforts to secure Ozturk’s release continued, adding consular and legal support was being provided by Turkish diplomatic missions in the US.
“Our Houston Consul General visited our citizen in the center where she is being held in Louisiana on March 28. Our citizen’s requests and demands have been forwarded to local authorities and her lawyer,” Keceli said in a post on X.
US President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters and has accused them, without providing evidence, of supporting Hamas, being anti-Semitic and posing foreign policy hurdles.
Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the Trump administration conflates their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism and support for Hamas.
Several students and protesters have had their visas revoked by the Trump administration, which says it may have revoked more than 300 visas.
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