{"id":399122,"date":"2026-04-18T19:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399122\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T19:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T19:10:12","slug":"pro-palestinian-tufts-university-graduate-targeted-by-trump-admin-returns-to-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/399122\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Palestinian Tufts University graduate targeted by Trump admin returns to Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Turkish doctoral student detained by US immigration authorities following her pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel activism has returned to her native country, a rights group said Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 13 years of dedicated study, I am very proud to have completed my PhD and to return home on my own timeline,\u201d Rumeysa Ozturk said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).<\/p>\n

Ozturk, a student at Tufts University near Boston, who completed her PhD in child study and human development in February, was detained by federal agents in March 2025 and held in Louisiana for six weeks.<\/p>\n

Footage of six masked agents dragging Ozturk off the street as she went to break her Ramadan fast with friends sparked an outcry.<\/p>\n

She had co-authored a March 2024 article in The Tufts Daily student newspaper criticizing the college\u2019s handling of student anger around Israel\u2019s war against Hamas in Gaza. US authorities said the sole basis for revoking her student visa \u2014 which was canceled by the State Department \u2014 was the editorial.<\/p>\n

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After a court ordered Ozturk\u2019s release from detention, the US government continued to seek her removal. The administration had appealed the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals and was awaiting a federal appeals court ruling. The case against her was terminated this week after Ozturk agreed to leave the country, the ACLU said.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tPresident Donald Trump speaks outside the Oval Office of the White House, on April 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/ Alex Brandon)<\/p>\n

\u201cI am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States \u2014 all for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights,\u201d she said in the ACLU statement.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump has targeted prestigious universities that became the epicenter of the US student protest movement amid Israel\u2019s war against Hamas in Gaza that was sparked by the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, directing immigration officers to deport foreign student demonstrators.<\/p>\n

Her case was seen as a high-profile example of the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to detain and deport non-citizen students over pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel views.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government\u2019s arrest and detention of Rumeysa was unlawful and harmful, as numerous federal court decisions have confirmed that the government had no basis for its actions aside from her constitutionally protected speech,\u201d said Jessie Rossman, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts.<\/p>\n


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