Federal Judge Blocks Deportation of Tufts University Student Detained by ICE

The Trump administration has been given until April 1 to respond to an amended complaint filed by the student’s lawyers.

This contributed photo shows Rumeysa Ozturk on an apple-picking trip in 2021. AP Photo

A federal judge in Massachusetts on March 28 blocked the deportation of a Tufts University graduate student who was recently taken into custody by federal authorities.

U.S. District Judge Denise Casper ruled that Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student from Turkey, cannot be deported while Casper determines whether the court has jurisdiction over the case.

The Trump administration has been given until April 1 to respond to an amended petition and complaint filed by Ozturk’s lawyers, according to the two-page ruling.

“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 stated.

The Department of Homeland Security has accused Ozturk of “engaging in activities in support of Hamas,” the terrorist group that carried out the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.

In her ruling, Casper cited the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate at Columbia University who was arrested and had his green card revoked on March 9 for allegedly leading activities aligned with Hamas. Khalil served as a lead negotiator for students during talks with university administrators over pro-Palestinian protests in spring 2024 on campus against Israel’s military response to the terrorist attack.

Khalil’s arrest followed President Donald Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism in colleges and universities. His deportation was blocked after a judge ruled on March 10 that he must remain in the United States while the court resolves jurisdictional issues.

Columbia University was one of many campuses in the United States where protesters set up encampments to protest the Israel–Hamas war in Gaza. Some of these protests escalated into anti-Semitic activities, as protesters set up barricades that prevented Jewish students from accessing certain buildings on campus. Trump has said the government will not tolerate such acts, alleging that many participants are not students but rather “paid agitators.”

The order in Ozturk’s case was issued in response to a petition filed by her legal counsel, which sought her release after she was detained by federal authorities outside an off-campus apartment building in Somerville, Massachusetts, on March 25.

Ozturk was later moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Louisiana. Government lawyers stated in a court filing that the transfer took place before a court order requiring a 48-hour notice was issued.

Ozturk’s lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, said in a statement that the student’s family members were unable to reach or locate Ozturk for nearly 24 hours after her arrest.

“The government must immediately release Rumeysa to continue her studies and rejoin her community,” the attorney stated.

Ozturk had previously co-authored a student newspaper article urging Tufts to sever financial ties with Israel in response to Israel’s retaliatory offensive following the Hamas-led terrorist attacks.

The article, published a year ago in the Tufts Daily, criticized the Tufts president for what it described as a “dismissive” response to the student government’s resolutions. These resolutions called on the university to acknowledge the “Palestinian genocide” and divest from companies that directly or indirectly do business with Israel.

Her lawyers have argued that Ozturk’s arrest violates her constitutional rights to free speech and due process.

“No person, regardless of their immigration status, can be arrested, detained, or deported as punishment for their political views. Ideas—and certainly op-eds—are not illegal,” Carol Rose, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said in a March 28 statement.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on March 27 that federal authorities have revoked Ozturk’s F-1 student visa. Rubio said that more than 300 visas have been revoked so far, adding, “We do it every day.”

“We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses. And if we’ve given you a visa and then you decide to do that, we’re going to take it away,” he said. “Every country in the world has a right to decide who comes in as a visitor and who doesn’t.”

Tufts President Sunil Kumar said in a March 25 campus-wide email that the university had no prior knowledge of Ozturk’s arrest and had not provided any information to federal authorities before she was detained.

The Epoch Times has reached out to the ICE and Ozturk’s legal counsel for comment and did not receive a response by publication time.

Bill Pan and Reuters contributed to this report.