A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to deport a Tufts PhD student that they alleged is a supporter of Hamas.
US District Court Judge Denise Casper, an Obama appointee in the District of Massachusetts, has ruled that the Trump administration cannot proceed with deporting Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey who was apprehended by ICE agents on Wednesday.
Court documents show Judge Casper is flexing her ability to “preserve existing conditions” while determining whether her court has jurisdiction in the matter at all.
Ozturk was apprehended by plainclothes ICE officers on a Boston street Tuesday in a viral video that showed her total shock as arresting officers took her phone from her hand and placed her in handcuffs.
The PHD student and Columbia Master’s Degree holder was taken to a facility in Louisiana — but is now being blocked from deportation.
The Department of Homeland Security alleged that Ozturk was a supporter of Hamas but has yet to provide any evidence to that effect.
On March 26, 2024, Ozturk co-authored an opinion article published in the Tufts Daily newspaper that criticized school administrators for their response to anti-Israel protests in the wake of the October 7th attacks and called for the school to divest from companies with ties to Israel.
Ozturk is listed in the database of pro-Israel activist group Canary Mission, which alleged that she is an anti-Israel activist and a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
Similar legal battles have played out in the Eastern District of Virginia and the Southern District of New York, as those courts also field cases of attempted deportations of students from Georgetown University and Columbia University respectively.
