A Turkish PhD student at the Tufts University has been detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials amid reports that her F1 visa has been revoked.
Rumeysa Ozturk, who was researching at the University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, was arrested by Department of Homeland Security agents on March 25 outside her apartment in Somerville Massachusetts, according to her attorney Masha Khanbabai.
She was detained when she was going to to break her Ramadan fast at a gathering with friends.
A senior DHS spokesperson, cited by GBH News, said Ozturk was detained over security concerns.
“Investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” the DHS spokesperson said in a statement, adding that “glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated.”
Meanwhile, a video shared on the media shows the activity when Ozturk was detained, handcuffed and put in a black vehicle by a people in plain clothes.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people gathered at Powder House Square near the Tufts University campus to protest the arrest of the graduate student.
According to reports, Ozturk is now being held in a U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement detention facility in Louisiana.
Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell has called the footage of her arrest “disturbing.”
Tufts President Sunil Kumar said the university is seeking if the visa termination of the student is a correct information.
Ozturk, reportedly voiced a public criticism of the university’s approach to pro-Palestinian protests over the war in Gaza. She was co-wrote an opinion piece in The Tuft Daily.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), has condemned Oturk’s detention and called for her “immediate and safe” release.
