Doctoral student Rümeysa Öztürk’s student wrote a newspaper article on the war on Palestine in 2024. But this week, Trump’s Administration’s ICE officers detained her for alleged ‘support of Hamas’
Protests have erupted at a university in Massachusetts after the Trump Administration detained Rümeysa Öztürk, a prestigious Fulbright scholar and PhD student at Tufts University on 25 March. The Turkish national is currently being held at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Centre in South Louisiana for allegedly “engag[ing] in activities in support of Hamas,” the Palestinian terrorist organisation.
The arrest comes in the wake of several universities, including Tufts, being warned by the Trump administration of repercussions for failing to crack down on the pro-Palestinian movement. Rümeysa was arrested by officers as she was on the way to an Iftar gathering, a communal meal during Ramadan when friends gather to break their fast. Footage of the arrest was caught by a camera outside an apartment building, and shows six plain clothes officers surround Rümeysa as she screams.
In the video, an onlooker is told that they are the police, to which the male voice, who does not appear on screen, asks if this is “a kidnapping”. In the unsettling footage, he is heard saying: “You don’t look like [police officers]. Why are you hiding your faces?”
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The Mirror has seen a letter from Tufts University senior leadership to their community of staff and students. The letter reads: “We recognize how frightening and distressing this situation is for [Öztürk], her loved ones, and the larger community here at Tufts, especially our international students, staff, and faculty who may be feeling vulnerable or unsettled by these events.”
The leadership team also advises students of established university protocols in place for responding to any government officials who arrive on campus. This hotline is available to connect students with external legal and immigration experts.
Ms Öztürk’s attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, filed an unlawful detainment petition to the Boston federal court on 25 March. US District Judge Indira Talwani has ordered US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) not to move Ozturk out of Massachusetts without 48 hours notice. However, her Khanbabai has said that her client was moved to Louisiana by Wednesday night,
Speaking with the Mirror, Tufts University said: “The university had no pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event.” The fact that the question begged to be asked recalls McCarthyism era of US politics, where university lecturers to writers were blacklisted for any, perceived or actualised, sympathies with communism.
However, this time feels different. The war on Palestine is an atrocity beyond the comprehension of humanity. Since the October 7th attacks in Israel, more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed. But we must comprehend what the United Nations has described as a ‘genocide’ of the Palestinian people.
The New York Times, amongst other news outlets, surmise that one possible reason for Ms. Öztürk’s detainment is a co-authored opinion article written for Tufts University’s student paper, The Tufts Daily. The essay calls for the university to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” as well as divest from companies directly or indirectly contributing to the Israeli state.
For clarity: Hamas is not mentioned once in The Tufts Daily article. Instead, it reads as a somewhat standard student motion being put to university leadership.
The Mirror contacted the United States Department for Homeland Security for comment on the arrest of Ms. Öztürk. They said that “investigations found Öztürk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” At time of writing, no confirmation has been provided as to what these alleged activities were.
The statement carries on to say that: “Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is common-sense security.”
While Tricia McLaughlin, the Assistant Secretary Dept. of Homeland Security took to X to post a screenshot of the arrest with the caption: ‘A visa is a privilege not a right’.
Where does this end though? I would say that this is a ‘canaries in the mines’ moment, but I fear we’ve long strayed past that when student opinion articles are met with the full force of immigration law enforcement.
