A Tufts University grad student named Rumeysa Ozturk from Turkey was detained by ICE on Wednesday because she had allegedly expressed support for Hamas. Her visa has reportedly been terminated.
Uproar over her detainment was immediate. No one has ever seen the radical left on campus held to account in this way and many people are simply stunned.
FOX News reports:
ICE detains Tufts University student amid Trump admin’s campus crackdownImmigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has detained a Tufts University student in Somerville, Massachusetts, according to the agency and a statement from university President Sunil Kumar.ICE confirmed Rumeysa Ozturk’s detention to Fox News on Wednesday. She is originally from Turkey.”We have received reports that an international graduate student was taken into custody this evening by federal authorities outside an off-campus apartment building in Somerville,” Kumar said in a statement. “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 noted that the school was told Ozturk’s visa had been terminated, and the university is looking into “whether that information is true.”…A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told Fox News that Ozturk was “granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa.””DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” the spokesperson said. “A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”
You can see the video of her arrest below:
She previously attended Columbia? What a surprise.
The Tufts Daily has more on Ozturk and the campus reaction:
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, Ozturk 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.”
Somerville, MA is a very progressive community and people there wasted no time protesting this.
CBS News in Boston reports:
Protesters demand release of Tufts student taken into custody by federal agents in MassachusettsHundreds of people gathered at Powder House Park on Wednesday, to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish PHD student at Tufts University, who was arrested by federal agents Tuesday night.The 30-year-old graduate student and Fulbright Scholar was detained Tuesday by federal agents in Somerville. A representative of the Department of Homeland Security said the student “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.” She’s now being held at an ICE Detention Center in Central Louisiana.”The university campus should absolutely be a place for the free and open exchange of ideas and the fact that someone can just be disappeared into the abyss for voicing an idea is absolutely horrifying,” said rally attendee Sam Wachman.
Powder House Park is very close to the Tufts campus.
Some of the usual suspects are outraged.
Tufts University has been a hotbed for radical anti-Israel activity since the October 7th attacks. On the anniversary of the attacks last year, the school’s ‘Students for Justice in Palestine’ chapter occupied a campus building.
Featured image via YouTube.
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