US authorities have detained a Turkish university student, the latest action taken against a foreign student associated with pro-Palestinian campus activism as President Donald Trump cracks down on the movement, Agence France-Presse reported.
Tufts University student Rumeysa Öztürk was detained by federal agents late Tuesday in the town of Somerville, Massachusetts, the school’s president said in a statement.
Öztürk filed a motion demanding authorities show lawful grounds for her detention, and a judge issued a decision barring officers from removing her from Massachusetts, according to legal filings made public Tuesday.
But as of Wednesday evening, the US Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s online detainee locator system listed her as being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana.
Öztürk co-authored an article in the university student newspaper The Tufts Daily in March 2024 criticizing the college’s handling of student anger sparked by Israel’s war in Gaza.
According to the newspaper, Öztürk is a doctoral candidate in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development.
Öztürk “engaged in activities in support of Hamas,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said in a statement Wednesday. The spokesperson didn’t specify what those alleged activities were.
No charges have been filed against Öztürk, her attorney told CNN.
A protest was planned for 2130 GMT Wednesday in Somerville to oppose Öztürk’s detention, according to the Cambridge Day news site.
Trump has targeted prestigious universities that became the epicenter of the US student protest movement sparked by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, stripping federal funds and directing immigration officers to deport foreign student demonstrators.
Critics argue that the campaign amounts to retribution and will have a chilling effect on free speech, while its supporters insist it is necessary to restore order to campuses and protect Jewish students.
At New York’s Columbia University, immigration officers detained one student, permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil, whose lawyers are fighting his deportation, while a judge thwarted efforts to detain another, Yunseo Chung.
Separately, a number of university professors sued the Trump administration in Massachusetts Tuesday, arguing its campaign targeting foreign academics was illegal.
“The policy prevents or impedes Plaintiffs’ US citizen members from hearing from, and associating with, their non-citizen students and colleagues,” the lawsuit reads.
In addition, the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers asked a New York judge to declare Trump’s slashing of $400 million from Columbia’s budget unconstitutional and to restore the funding.
Columbia announced Friday a package of concessions to the Trump administration around defining anti-Semitism, policing protests and oversight for specific academic departments.
They stopped short, however, of some of the more strenuous demands of the Trump administration, which nonetheless welcomed the Ivy League college’s proposals.