US immigration officials arrest Turkish student amid crackdown

A Turkish student attending Tufts University was arrested by US immigration officials in Massachusetts and is being held in detention in Louisiana.

Rumeysa Ozturk was detained on Tuesday outside Boston, as she was walking to an Iftar meal to celebrate Ramadan. Video shows masked, plain-clothes officers handcuffing and leading her to an unmarked car.

Tufts said in a statement that it had been told by officials that the student visa held by Ms Otzurk, who is a doctoral student, had been revoked.

Ms Otzurk participated in pro-Palestinian protests as a legal US resident. Her arrest follows the White House's crackdown on what it has classified as antisemitism on US campuses.

Critics say the allegations are false. They allege that US officials are violating students' right to free speech and are incorrectly accusing them of being anti-Jewish.

On Tuesday, a federal judge in Massachusetts ordered that Ms Ozturk, 30, be detained in Massachusetts, and that prosecutors provide at least 48 hours notice if they intend to move her out of the state.

But according to federal records, she is currently being kept in Louisiana - about 1,500 miles (2,400km) away.

US Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a post on X that Ms Ozturk "engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans".

"A visa is a privilege not a right," she wrote, including a photo of Ms Ozturk's arrest.

It is currently unclear what charges she is facing or how she allegedly supported Hamas.

The Tufts University statement said that it had no advance knowledge of the arrest, which took place off-campus.

"From what we have been told subsequently, the student's visa status has been terminated, and we seek to confirm whether that information is true," it said.

Ms Otzurk's arrest follows the high-profile detention or attempted arrest of university students who have organised in support of the Palestinians.

On Wednesday, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to halt its efforts to arrest and deport a Columbia University student.

Yunseo Chung, 21, a legal permanent resident who moved to the US from South Korea as a child, had filed a lawsuit alleging immigration officials had executed search warrants at multiple Columbia facilities, including her dormitory.

Ms Chung's lawyer, Ramzi Kassem, called the New York federal judge's ruling "sensible and fair", according to Politico.

He said her client "no longer has to fear" arrest or being sent to a faraway prison "simply because she spoke up for Palestinian human rights".

The Columbia student's lawsuit also names other students facing deportation, including Cornell doctoral candidate Momodou Taal and Columbia international student Ranjani Srinivasan, whose visa was revoked.

One of the highest profile cases thus far involves Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent pro-Palestinian activist, who remains in a Louisiana detention facility without charges.

The heightened activity by immigration officials is a part of President Donald Trump's promise to combat antisemitism, written into an executive order in January.

Since then, the administration has revoked $400m in Columbia funding over allegations the university failed to combat antisemitism on its campus, and threatened to do the same to other universities.

The administration has also moved to deport multiple students across the country and called for students to "self-deport".

Trump officials have cited the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the State Department to deport non-citizens who are "adversarial to the foreign policy and national security interests" of the US.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has argued this statute grants broad deportation authority, stating visa and green-card holders can be removed "for virtually any reason".

Civil rights groups, including the ACLU, have condemned the administration's actions.

In an open letter to universities, the ACLU warned: "The federal government cannot mandate student expulsions or threaten funding cuts to suppress constitutionally protected speech."