The State Department revoked her student visa four days before her detention and pre-notified the university of its decision.
Tufts University has launched a fierce defense of Turkish doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk after federal agents detained her for supporting Hamas.
Homeland Security agents apprehended Ozturk outside her Somerville apartment on March 25 as she walked to dinner.
The thirty-year-old first landed on federal authorities’ radar after co-authoring an opinion piece in The Tufts Daily demanding the university “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest from companies with any connections to Israel.
The State Department revoked her student visa four days before her detention and pre-notified the university of its decision.
In legal documents submitted Wednesday on behalf of Ozturk, Tufts University President Sunil Kumar demanded that Ozturk be released immediately.
“The University has no information to support the allegations that she was engaged in activities at Tufts that warrant her arrest and detention,” Kumar wrote, noting that “students, faculty and staff are now fearful of leaving their homes to attend classes on campus.”
Ever since President Trump’s executive order in January to combat antisemitism, immigration officials have reportedly revoked over 300 visas from pro-Hamas radicals.
“They are not just random acts of law enforcement,” national security lawyer Irina Tsukerman explains to Fox News.
“They are part of a comprehensive domestic national security strategy that also involves investigation of universities for facilitating illegal activity, including acts of antisemitism and general violence, material support for terrorist organizations, and other violations that caused tremendous inconvenience, distress, and even terror to students, staffers, and the general population alike.”
