A PhD student was snatched by masked officers in broad daylight. Then she was flown 1,500 miles away

(CNN) — Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk was walking alone Tuesday night to meet friends at a dinner where they would break their 13-hour Ramadan fast when six plainclothes officers suddenly encircled her on the street near her apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, surveillance video shows.

The 30-year-old shrieked in fear when an officer in a hooded sweatshirt and hat grabbed her by the wrists as another pulled out a concealed badge on a lanyard and confiscated her cell phone.

Soon afterward, the swarm of officers who had surrounded her on the sidewalk pulled cloth coverings over their mouths and noses, some of them wearing sunglasses.

“We’re the police,” the officers said.

“Yeah, you don’t look like it. Why are you hiding your faces?” a person not seen in the video can be heard responding.

The masked officers handcuffed Ozturk and held onto each of her arms, the video shows.

One minute after the encounter began, Ozturk was led into an SUV and driven away.

The international student – who is originally from Turkey and on a valid F-1 student visa – was then driven “across multiple states,” including multiple government offices in New England, Ozturk’s legal team said.

The next morning, she was flown more than 1,500 miles away from her home to a staging facility in Alexandria, Louisiana – despite a court order about six hours after her arrest that Ozturk not be moved outside Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice.

While in transit to Louisiana, Ozturk suffered from an asthma attack, according to an amended habeas corpus petition filed Friday. Throughout that period of time, Ozturk was not charged or given the opportunity to speak with a lawyer, according to the spokesperson.

Then, she eventually ended up at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana.

Ozturk is one of several international university students facing deportation following a Trump administration order to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses.

The arrests of scholars and students at the hands of masked law enforcement officers – who have taken them into custody by ambushing them on city streets and near their homes – have sent a chill across the international student community.

After Ozturk’s arrest, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas” in a Wednesday statement, without specifying what those alleged activities were. Her lawyers say she is unfairly being punished for speaking out in favor of Palestinian rights.

While a judge has since halted her deportation, Ozturk’s lawyers continue to fight for her release.

A frantic search for the student

After she never made it to the Iftar gathering, Ozturk’s friends frantically searched for her.

Because she has asthma, her loved ones worried she had become ill without access to her medication. Fearing she could’ve had a medical episode, her lawyers contacted local hospitals, the filing said.

On Tuesday evening and Wednesday, her lawyers worked to locate Ozturk. They called ICE offices and ICE detention facilities in New England to no avail, the petition said. ICE’s online detainee locator system indicated Ozturk was in custody but the detention facility field remained blank.

A representative of the Turkish consulate went to ICE offices in Burlington, Massachusetts, and was informed that Ozturk was not in that office and ICE could not provide further information about her whereabouts, according to the petition. Department of Justice counsel also informed Ozturk’s lawyers that they could not locate her, the petition says.

Her friends, family and attorneys remained unable to locate or contact her for about 24 hours after her arrest, the petition said.

Finally, Ozturk’s lawyers were able to speak to her on Wednesday evening.

No charges have been filed against Ozturk, her attorney told CNN. Ozturk’s visa was revoked on March 21 but she was not notified until she received a notice to appear from ICE after her arrest, the petition says.

On Friday, a federal judge in Boston issued an order to stop Ozturk from being deported.

Ozturk had about 10 months left to complete her doctorate in child study and human development at Tufts University, her brother Asim Ozturk said in a statement. She had been studying in the US since 2018, having received a master’s degree from Columbia University on a Fulbright scholarship, according to her lawyers.

“Rümeysa’s arrest and detention are designed to punish her speech and chill the speech of others,” the petition said. “Indeed, her arrest and detention are part of a concerted and systemic effort by Trump administration officials to punish students and others identified with pro-Palestine activism.”

Marco Rubio references op-ed Ozturk wrote a year ago

On March 26, 2024, Ozturk cowrote an op-ed in the school’s newspaper in which she criticized Tufts’ response to a student government group’s call for the university to divest from companies with ties to Israel because of the conflict in Gaza, among other demands.

“Credible accusations against Israel include accounts of deliberate starvation and indiscriminate slaughter of Palestinian civilians and plausible genocide,” the op-ed says.

Asked about Ozturk’s case and op-ed Thursday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested without evidence she was involved in disruptive student protests over Israel’s war in Gaza.

“If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us that the reason why you’re coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus, we’re not going to give you a visa,” Rubio said.

Rubio “determined” Ozturk’s alleged activities would have “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise a compelling U.S. foreign policy interest,” Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, told CNN Thursday.

She declined to provide details about Ozturk’s alleged activities or how they could pose adverse consequences to US foreign policy.

Ozturk’s family believes she is being targeted for her beliefs.

“Apart from expressing her opinion within the framework of freedom of expression without engaging in any provocative or aggressive action regarding the Palestine issue, she has not taken any action,” Asim said. “It seems that she has been subjected to the activities of ICE, which has been on a witch hunt in the post-Trump period, against those who support Palestine.”

Meanwhile, the video of Ozturk’s arrest has sparked widespread outrage. Hundreds protested Ozturk’s detention Wednesday night at a park on the edge of the Tufts’ campus, CNN affiliate WBZ reported.

“The fact that someone can just be disappeared into the abyss for voicing an idea is absolutely horrifying,” rally attendee Sam Wachman told WBZ.

Tufts President Sunil Kumar said he shared the concerns of Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell and called the video of Ozturk’s arrest “disturbing.”

“We recognize how frightening and distressing this situation is for (Ozturk), her loved ones, and the larger community here at Tufts, especially our international students, staff, and faculty who may be feeling vulnerable or unsettled by these events,” Kumar said in a statement late Wednesday.

Ozturk’s lawyers work toward her release

After Ozturk was detained, her lawyers filed a petition in federal district court in Boston challenging the legality of her detention and asking she not be moved out of Massachusetts. District Judge Indira Talwani granted their request Tuesday that she not be moved out of state “without first providing advance notice.”

But Ozturk had already been taken outside Massachusetts when federal officials got the court’s order, government attorney Mark Sauter said in a court filing Thursday morning.

Her lawyers allege that ICE failed to notify them, the court and DOJ lawyers that she was being taken to Louisiana prior to that transfer, even though the Massachusetts court had entered the order requiring notification.

Her attorneys on Friday asked a federal court in Massachusetts to assert jurisdiction over her case, release her on bail as the litigation moves forward and restore her F-1 student visa.

“The government has adopted a policy of targeting noncitizens for arrest, detention and removal based on First Amendment-protected speech advocating for Palestinian rights,” the Friday petition said.

Ozturk is set to face an initial hearing in removal proceedings on April 7 in Louisiana, according to the petition. The government is also required to respond to the parallel petition challenging her detention no later than April 1.

Judge Denise Casper, who blocked Ozturk’s deportation, wrote in her Friday order that the PhD student “shall not be removed from the United States until further order from this court.” Casper’s order directs immigration authorities to stop deportation proceedings against Ozturk until she can decide whether the Boston court has jurisdiction to decide if Ozturk was lawfully detained.

Ozturk’s lawyers praised Casper’s decision Friday.

“This is a first step in getting Rumeysa released and back home to Boston so she can continue her studies,” lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai said in a statement. “But we never should have gotten here in the first place: Rumeysa’s experience is shocking, cruel, and unconstitutional.”

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