US judge blocks deportation of Turkish student detained in pro-Palestine crackdown
A US judge has prevented the deportation of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University, who was detained last year amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activists.
Ozturk’s lawyers provided a detailed account of the ruling in a formal letter filed on Monday with the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ozturk was detained last March while walking on a public street. Masked US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents handcuffed her and placed her in an unmarked vehicle.
Her arrest took place as the Trump administration intensified its targeting of foreign students and activists advocating for Palestinian human rights.
The sole reason authorities offered for revoking her visa was an editorial she co‑authored for Tufts’ student newspaper a year earlier, condemning her university’s response to Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
Her legal team first filed a petition for her release in federal court in Boston, later moving the case to Burlington, Vermont.
In May, a federal judge ordered her immediate release, finding that her detention constituted unlawful retaliation in violation of her free speech rights.
Ozturk spent 45 days in a detention center in southern Louisiana but has since returned to the Tufts campus.
The Trump administration appealed that release to the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals; however, the recent decision halts those proceedings for now.
“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the US government,” Ozturk said in a statement released by her lawyers.
Her immigration attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, confirmed that immigration judge Roopal Patel in Boston issued the decision.
While the ruling itself is not public, the administration could still challenge it before the Board of Immigration Appeals.
Khanbabai praised Patel’s decision and denounced the Trump administration’s use of immigration law against “valued members of our society.”
“It has manipulated immigration laws to silence people who advocate for Palestinian human rights and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” she said.
“With this ruling, Judge Patel has delivered justice for Rumeysa; now, I hope that other immigration judges will follow her lead and decline to rubber-stamp the president’s cruel deportation agenda,” she added.
Video of Ozturk’s arrest in the Boston suburb of Somerville circulated widely, making her case one of the most prominent examples of the administration’s efforts to expel non-citizen students expressing pro‑Palestinian views.
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