Federal authorities detained a Tufts graduate student last night outside an off-campus apartment in Somerville, University President Sunil Kumar announced in an email around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday night. Kumar wrote that the university is seeking more information about the cause and circumstances of the arrest.
The student, Rümeysa Öztürk, is a Turkish national and doctoral candidate in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development. Öztürk is a teaching fellow, works as a doctoral research assistant at Tufts’ Children’s Television Project and completed a master’s degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, as a Fulbright Scholar.
Öztürk's attorney filed a petition in the Massachusetts federal court for her to appear before court. Öztürk is currently being held in Louisiana, according to the university.
“The university had no pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event, and the location where this took place is not affiliated with Tufts University,” Kumar wrote in an email to the Tufts community.
The university did not immediately provide additional comment to the Daily.
Tufts administration was told that Öztürk's visa has been terminated, but the university has yet to confirm whether that is accurate and is attempting to learn more about the incident.
Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts and Palestinian Youth Movement called for an emergency rally to take place at 5:30 p.m. this afternoon in an Instagram post early this morning.
“We will fill the streets of Somerville and Raise Our Banners. We won’t let Trump take our students and immigrant neighbors without a fight,” the post reads.
In March 2024, Öztürk coauthored an op-ed in the Daily, calling on Kumar to endorse Tufts Community Union Senate resolutions for the university to recognize genocide in Gaza and divest from Israeli corporations. Canary Mission, a website with the stated purpose to “document people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses,” cited the article as “anti-Israel activism.”
“Rumeysa was likely targeted after being recently doxxed by Canary Mission,” the CPLT post reads.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Öztürk's arrest marks the first deportation effort to impact the Tufts community following President Donald Trump’s January executive order to deport non-U.S. citizens who participated in pro-Palestinian protests. On March 8, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers detained Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil on campus for his role in organizing pro-Palestinian protests. The Department of Education sent a warning letter to Tufts, one of 60 universities under investigation for reports of antisemitism, on March 10.
On March 17, a Georgetown postdoctoral fellow on a student visa from India was detained by Immigration and Custom Enforcement. A federal judge ordered that officials not deport him on Thursday. On Tuesday, a federal judge ordered to block efforts to deport another Columbia student and green card holder from South Korea for her participation in pro-Palestinian protests at Barnard College.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
