Ozturk’s attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai, said she does not know where her client is now and has not been able to contact her. A federal judge in Boston ordered US Immigration and Customs Enforcement not to remove Ozturk from Massachusetts on Tuesday without prior notice.
It was unclear Wednesday why the Trump administration targeted Ozturk. She had voiced support for the pro-Palestinian movement at Tufts, but was not known as a prominent leader. Her lawyer said she is not aware of any charges against her. The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
The arrest is the latest move in the Trump administration’s campaign to detain and deport pro-Palestinian campus activists who are in the US on student visas or green cards.
Earlier this month, federal officials arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of the pro-Palestinian movement at Columbia University and moved to deport him after Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that his continued presence in the United States was detrimental to US foreign policy. The administration also arrested a researcher at Georgetown University and another Columbia student with a green card as President Trump vowed that Khalil’s detention was “the first arrest of many to come.”
The administration also recently put dozens of schools, including Tufts, on notice that they could face sanctions for failing to crack down on antisemitism and what the administration has described as illegal protests.
Ozturk’s lawyer noted that information about her client was recently posted on Canary Mission, a website that compiles information about pro-Palestinian activists accused of antisemitism. Ozturk co-wrote an op-ed in the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to the pro-Palestinian movement and supporting calls for divestment from Israel.
Pro-Palestinian activists and free speech advocates have decried the arrests as a form of unconstitutional repression of disfavored speech.
“We unequivocally condemn the abduction of a young Muslim hijab-wearing scholar,” said Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, the executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “This alarming act of repression is a direct assault on free speech and academic freedom.”
Ozturk’s arrest took place slightly after 5 p.m. Tuesday on Mason Street in Somerville near the Tufts campus, according to the eyewitness.
While walking his dog, he said, he saw a woman screaming outside a house. Half a dozen officers in plainclothes and wearing masks were in the vicinity, he said. Some were handcuffing her while she cried and said, “OK, OK, but I’m a student,” he recalled.
Another officer was watching passersby.
After the officers handcuffed Ozturk, they placed her in an SUV, the man said. As the witness left the scene, another officer pulled a mask over his face and then silently followed the witness for a block, the man recalled.
The man’s account matches a video recorded by a neighbor’s security camera and obtained by the Globe.
Neighbors reported that unmarked cars had allegedly been surveilling the location for two days before apprehending her on the street, the statement said.
A 2021 Facebook post from the Columbia Teachers College Office of Admissions said Ozturk graduated from the Developmental Psychology program with a focus on Children’s Media in 2020.
The post said her research interests included representation in children’s television, media literacy, and “prosocial development.” It added that she was the the cofounder of an independent children’s media initiative in Istanbul.
Reyyan Bilge, an assistant teaching professor in psychology at Northeastern University, told the Globe that she has known Ozturk for more than a decade since Bilge taught Ozturk at Şehir University in Istanbul. Ozturk came to the US to get her master’s at Columbia, and Bilge wrote multiple reference letters for her.
Ozturk is a soft-spoken, kind woman who cares deeply about how children are portrayed in the media, Bilge said. “If you were to actually have a chat with her for about five minutes, you would understand how kind, and how decent a person she is,” Bilge said.
Early Wednesday morning, group chats with friends from Turkey were blowing up with the news of Ozturk’s arrest.
In a message to the Tufts community Tuesday night, Tufts University President Sunil Kumar said the school received reports that the student was taken into custody outside an off-campus apartment building in Somerville, though the email did not identify Ozturk by name.
The university was told that the student’s visa status was “terminated,” Kumar said in the email.
The university “had no pre-knowledge” of the incident, and did not share information with authorities before the apprehension, Kumar said in the statement, adding that the location where the arrest took place was not affiliated with Tufts.
“We realize that tonight’s news will be distressing to some members of our community, particularly the members of our international community,” Kumar said.
In a three-page order issued Tuesday, Indira Talwani, the federal judge in the case, ordered ICE to submit a written explanation for relocating Ozturk and notify the court 48 hours before any effort takes place to allow the judge time to review the added information. ICE “shall state the reason why the government believes that such a movement is necessary and should not be stayed pending further court proceedings,” the order says.
Talwani ordered ICE officials to respond to the habeas petition by Friday.
Ozturk’s LinkedIn says that she is a Fulbright Scholar who had been studying at Tufts since 2021, and had previously worked as a research assistant at Boston University in 2016. Ozturk was working as a graduate research assistant at the time of her arrest, her LinkedIn says.
All of Ozturk’s family is in Turkey, and she only has friends here in the US, Bilge said. On Sunday, Bilge was planning to get together with Ozturk and other loved ones for Eid al-Fitr, the holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
Now, Bilge is determined to fight for Ozturk’s release from detention.
“It’s so dystopic. And you come to the US thinking that it’s going to be all wonderful,” Bilge said. “It’s distressing.”
Bilge said that Ozturk would never say anything to hurt anyone. “She’s not antisemitic. She’s definitely not anti-Israel,” Bilge said. But like many other Muslims, Bilge said, Ozturk is concerned about the human rights of Palestinian people. “But that’s freedom of speech,” Bilge said. “That’s just being human.”
Advocates are planning to rally Wednesday, saying that the arrest marked the first known instance of a student activist being arrested by federal immigration officials in Boston. The protest will be held at 5:30 p.m. at Powder House Square Park in Somerville.
“We must show that Boston and Massachusetts will not back down,” community activists said in a statement. “We won’t let Trump take our students without a fight.”
Free speech advocates and immigration attorneys have strongly denounced the Trump administration’s March 8 arrest of recent Columbia graduate Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful US resident and green card holder. His detention has also sparked fear among international students in Greater Boston that their legal status in the country could be at risk.
Mehmet Fatih Uslu, a professor of Comparative Literature at Koç University in Istanbul, said in a phone interview that he also taught Ozturk when she was a student at Şehir University, where she was a double major in Psychology and Turkish literature. “She was one of the most exceptional students I think I have ever had the privilege to teach,” Uslu said. “She was dedicated, hard working, passionate.”
Uslu called the news of her arrest “horrifying,” and said that Ozturk was a deeply committed person, “driven by a sincere desire to serve society.”
When she got into the program at Columbia, Uslu remembers that “it was like a dream program for her,” Uslu said.
The last time he spoke to her a couple of years ago over Zoom, it was clear that Ozturk was really happy, then attending the PhD program at Tufts. “She truly cherished her life in the United States,” Uslu said. “She loved the country, she loved the people.”
Camilo Fonseca, Hilary Burns, and Omar Mohammed of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @giuliamcdnr. Mike Damiano can be reached at [email protected]. John R. Ellement can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @JREbosglobe.
