The ruling comes months after the Tufts doctoral student was freed from ICE detention where she was held for opposing Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n
The United States government must restore Rumeysa Ozturk\u2019s student visa record, a federal court has ruled, months after the Tufts student was released from immigration detention where she was being held for speaking out against Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n
United States District Judge Denise Casper delivered an interim ruling on Monday that US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration must restore Ozturk\u2019s name to a database of foreign students administered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), known as SEVIS.<\/p>\n
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The return of her SEVIS record would allow Ozturk, who is a doctoral student in childhood development and the media at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, to work and participate in research related to her studies, her lawyers said.<\/p>\n
In a statement responding to the ruling, Ozturk said her student record was \u201cunlawfully cancelled\u201d because she co-wrote an op-ed advocating \u201cfor equal dignity and humanity for all\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter eight long months, that record will now finally be restored,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing through this brutality, which began with my unlawful arrest and 45 days of detention at a shameful for-profit ICE prison in Louisiana, I feel more connected to everyone whose educational rights are being denied \u2013 especially in Gaza,\u201d Ozturk added, noting that \u201ccountless scholars have been murdered and every university has been intentionally destroyed,\u201d in the Palestinian enclave.<\/p>\n