Tufts College graduate scholar Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old Turkish nationwide, is being held in Louisiana, almost two days after she was detained by federal immigration brokers in Massachusetts.Â
Surveillance video exhibits Division of Homeland Safety officers arresting Ozturk Tuesday night outdoors her off-campus condo in Somerville. She was surrounded by six ICE brokers as she was strolling to the college’s interfaith middle to interrupt the Ramadan quick at an Iftar dinner with buddies.
CBS Boston
Ozturk was capable of briefly communicate along with her lawyer by phone from Louisiana, in keeping with court docket paperwork filed on Thursday. Â
Tufts scholar detained by ICE
Within the video, an agent is seen taking her cellphone out of Ozturk’s fingers earlier than she is handcuffed. The officers had been in plain garments, carrying masks and driving unmarked vehicles. A neighbor could be heard within the recording asking, “Is that this a kidnapping?”
Homeland Safety has accused Ozturk of being pro-Hamas and mentioned that her visa had been terminated. Her buddies say she’s being punished for co-authoring an op-ed within the Tufts Each day campus newspaper final yr, calling on Tufts to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest from Israel. There was no point out of Hamas.
Tufts College President Sunil Kumar known as the video of Ozturk’s arrest “disturbing” in an e mail to campus Wednesday night time.
“We’re in contact with native, state, and federal elected officers and hope that Rumeysa is offered the chance to avail herself of her due course of rights. The college is actively working to assist the Tufts neighborhood because it mobilizes its collective assets and contacts to make sure our college students’ security and wellbeing,” Kumar mentioned.
Ozturk’s legal professional, Mahsa Khanbabai, mentioned there have been no fees filed in opposition to her shopper.
On Tuesday night time, a federal choose had ordered regulation enforcement to not transfer Ozturk out of Massachusetts with out two days’ discover. However she was moved to an ICE processing middle in Louisiana, greater than a thousand miles away, Homeland Safety mentioned Wednesday.
A whole lot of individuals protested the arrest at a rally at a park close to campus in Somerville Wednesday night time.
Rumeysa Ozturk
Reyyan Bilge, a psychology professor at Northeastern College in Boston, is Ozturk’s buddy and had her as a scholar in Turkey. Bilge mentioned she’s recognized Ozturk for a number of years and known as the accusations “baseless” and “libelous.”
“It is so surreal and heartbreaking,” Bilge mentioned. “She has by no means talked about Hamas, not to mention being both anti-Semitic or being anti something.”Â
contributed to this report.
