Student Tufts held by ice

An international student in a postgraduate program at TUFTS University was taken over by federal curation on Tuesday outside an apartment building outside the campus, according to the University’s president and an attorney representing the student.

The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen, had a valid student visa as a doctoral student at Tufts, according to a statement by Mahsa Khanbabai’s lawyer. Mrs Ozturk, who is a Muslim, headed to break Ramadan quickly with friends on Tuesday night, when she was detained by agents from the Ministry of Homeland Security her apartment in Somerville, Mass, said Mrs Khanbabai.

“We do not know her place and we could not contact her,” the lawyer said. “No categories have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we know.”

A spokesman for customs and border protection, which is part of the department, did not immediately answer questions on Wednesday on the case.

Tufts administrators were informed that the student’s visa had been terminated, Sunil Kumar University president wrote in an email to students, staff and faculty members on Tuesday night. He told e -mail that the university “seeks to confirm if this information is true”.

Late on Tuesday, Judge Indira Talwani of the Federal Regional Court in Massachusetts ordered that Judge Talwani’s mandate was not transferred, said Mrs Ozturk asked the judge to determine if her detention was legal.

The report by Ms. Ozturk’s court named the respondents Patricia Hyde, director of the Boston Migration and Customs Office and other ICE officials.

Mr Kumar wrote in the email that Tufts administrators had no prior knowledge of the plan to keep the student and did not share information with the federal authorities.

“We realize that the news will be unpleasant to some members of our community, especially the members of our international community,” Mr Kumar wrote.

Ms. Ozturk referred to as one of the many authors of an essay opinion published last March in the Tufts Student newspaper. The essay criticized universities leaders to respond to demands that Tufts “recognize Palestinian genocide” and transfer from companies with ties to Israel.

He is one of the many students who have aimed to deport the Trump administration. Earlier this month, Mahmoud Khalil, a recent graduate of Columbia University and leader of the US Permanent Diocese, was arrested by federal migration officers in New York. Although not accused of any crime, Trump’s administration argued that it must be deported to prevent anti -Semitism from spreading.

In Tufts, the President’s email reminded the students of the “established protocol of the University to respond to government agents arriving at the campus (or outside the campus) for a surprise visit to the site”.

With the warning that the basis for the detention of Ms Ozturk was not known, Tyler Coward, head of government affairs at the Institute for Individual Rights and Expression, Freedom Defense Team, said that the attempt to launch students on the basis of their speech or speech.

“If the Ice holding Ozturk based on OP-E-ED or its activism is a worrying escalation in an already full-fledged students here for student theories,” Mr Coward said in a statement.

About 12,000 full -time students at TUFTS include 1,900 international students from 124 countries, according to the website of the University Center of the University.

Ms. Ozturk is presented on a 2021 Facebook page for the Columbia University College. The page says he received a Masters Degree from the Children’s Media Development Program in 2020 as a Fulbright scholar and pursues a doctorate in Tufts. The profile continues to say that it has set up an independent media initiative in Istanbul called Kaplumbaga’nın Heybesi.

“In her spare time. You can find Rumeysa Reading Picture books, hiking, baking (no recipes) and animations and animations!” He says.

Canary Mission, a group that says it fights the hatred of Jews in campuses, had published a photo of Ms Ozturk on its website, identifying it as a student in Tufts and saying that “he was involved in anti-Israeli activism in March 20”. The super-good activists said the team exposes their identity, making their harassment goals.

President Trump signed an executive mandate on January 29, saying that his administration would take measures to combat anti -Semitism, including campuses. The mandate said it would be for US policy to use “all available and appropriate legal tools”, including “removal” foreigners dealing with “illegal anti -Semitic harassment and violence”.

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The Tufts main campus is located in Medford, Mass., A small town seven miles northwest of Boston and next to Somerville, where the student was held.

Anemona Hartocollis contributed to the report. Kitty Bennett contributed to the research.