Doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk (Tufts) arrested after an op-ed on Gaza
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Rümeysa Öztürk, Turkish doctoral student at Tufts
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RESPONSIBLE FOR BAN
Trump administration: State Department, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE
On 25 March 2025, Rümeysa Öztürk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, was stopped in the street in Somerville, Massachusetts, by plain-clothes agents. Her student visa had been revoked by the State Department.
The main evidence cited against her was an op-ed she co-signed in March 2024 in the Tufts student newspaper. It criticised the university's response to the war in Gaza and called on it to acknowledge the genocide and divest from companies linked to Israel. The authorities accused her of activities "in support of Hamas", without providing any evidence.
She was held for about 45 days in an ICE detention centre in Louisiana, where she suffered asthma attacks. On 9 May 2025, federal judge William Sessions III (Vermont) ordered her release, finding that she posed no flight risk.