Judge hands major victory to anti-Israel Turkish researcher at US university

Doctoral student who lost her visa after she blasted her university’s stance on Israel and the Gaza war will be allowed to return to her activities at Tufts under a federal court order, despite the loss of her student visa.

By World Israel News Staff

A Turkish doctoral candidate who was conducting research and teaching at an American university prior to being detained by immigration authorities will be allowed to resume her activities on campus, a federal judge has ruled.

In March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained Tufts Ph.D. candidate Rumeysa Ozturk under President Donald Trump’s executive order calling for the deportation of pro-Hamas foreign students studying at American colleges.

Ozturk’s F-1 student visa was revoked and deportation proceedings initiated after the Department of Homeland Security accused her of publicly supporting Hamas following her co-authoring an op-ed blasting Tufts’ stance on Israel and the Gaza war.

“Rumeysa Ozturk is a Turkish national and Tufts University graduate student, granted the privilege to be in this country on a visa. DHS + ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said at the time of Ozturk’s detention.

Authorities transferred Ozturk to a Louisiana facility pending her deportation, but federal judges ordered ICE to refrain from deporting the Turkish national and later ruled she be released and allowed to return to Tufts University.

Until now, however, Ozturk was unable to conduct research or teach at Tufts, after her record in the government database of foreign students was erased following the revocation of her visa.

This Monday, Chief U.S. District Judge Denise J. Casper ordered that Ozturk be allowed to resume her activities on campus.

Casper wrote in her decision that Ozturk was likely to win her appeal against the decision to revoke her student visa.

The judge also argued that the government’s handling of Ozturk’s case was “arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law and in violation of the First Amendment.”

In her ruling, Casper rejected the government’s argument that the court lacked jurisdiction over the case and that the termination of Ozturk’s student visa and foreign student record were legally valid.