US authorities detain Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk at Tufts, revoke visa

Boston: US federal immigration authorities detained a PhD student from Turkiye studying at Tufts University near Boston late on Tuesday and have revoked her visa, according to the university and her attorney.

The Turkish national, Rumeysa Ozturk, was taken into custody near her home in Somerville, Massachusetts, according to her lawyer, who filed a lawsuit in Boston federal court arguing she had been unlawfully detained.

US district judge Indira Talwani in response to that lawsuit ordered US immigration and customs enforcement to not move Ozturk out of Massachusetts without first providing advance notice and to keep her in the state for at least 48 hours after.

Representatives for the US department of homeland security and ICE did not respond to requests for comment. Ozturk, 30, is a Fulbright Scholar and student in Tufts' doctoral programme for child study and human development, according to her LinkedIn, and had previously studied at Columbia University. Last year, she co-authored an op-ed in the university's student paper that criticised the school's response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide." She is on F-1 visa, her lawyer said.

Judge orders US to stop bid to deport Columbia student

A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to halt its efforts to arrest and deport a 21-year old Columbia University student who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The administration began seeking to arrest Yunseo Chung this month, according to a lawsuit filed by Chung's lawyers. The judge said during a hearing in Manhattan federal court that "nothing in the record" indicated that Chung posed a danger to the community or a "foreign-policy risk" or had communicated with terrorist organisations.

(Reuters and NYT)