A Turkish national and doctoral student at Tufts University has been detained by US Department of Homeland Security agents without explanation, her lawyer said Wednesday. Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, had just left her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday night when she was stopped, lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai said in a petition filed in Boston federal court. Video obtained by the AP 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. US 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 US Immigration and Custom Enforcement's online detainee locator system listed her as being held in Louisiana.
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. DHS and ICE claimed in a statement that Ozturk was "engaged in activities in support of Hamas." 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.
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