Who is Rumeysa Ozturk, the Turkish national facing deportation from the US?

Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old Turkish national on a student visa in the US, is currently being held at the South Louisiana Processing Center in Lousiana, accused of "supporting" Hamas.

Masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents approached and physically restrained the Tufts University doctoral student and research assistant in Massachusetts on 25 March.

The Department of Homeland Security and ICE have not publicly provided evidence for their allegations, and she has not been charged with any crime.

President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters and has accused them of antisemitism, supporting Hamas, and being a threat to national security.

Ozturk was enrolled at the Eliot-Pearson department of child study and human development at Tufts University. She holds a master’s from Columbia University’s Teachers College and graduated from the developmental psychology programme with a focus on children’s media in 2020.

She is a grantee of the prestigious Fulbright Scholar programme, which aims to increase mutual understanding between Americans and other people around the world.

Friends of Ozturk believe she may have been targeted because of a doxxing campaign for co-authoring a March 2024 opinion article in the university newspaper, Tufts Daily.

The article renewed calls for the university to adopt the Tufts Community Senate Resolutions, to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide, apologize for University President Sunil Kumar’s statements, disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel”.

Ozturk’s photo and other identifying information were posted on Canary Mission in February. Canary Mission is a website that documents individuals and organisations it considers to be "antisemitic". Critics say the website's mission is to "demonise" and "dox" pro-Palestinian students and suppress criticism of Israel. 

On Friday last week, a federal judge in Massachusetts ordered that Ozturk should not be deported for now.

'Sweet, kind and gentle'

When Reem Alattas contracted Covid-19 in March 2020, the person she called for help was Ozturk.

Ozturk lived across the street from her in Columbia University campus housing in New York City. Both were classmates in the Department of Human Development at the Teachers College, albeit on different programmes.

Both were part a handful of international students left on campus after thousands of their peers fled the city when the pandemic hit in full force that spring. Both were wrapping up their final semester of a two-year master’s programme.

Recalling that moment in her life, Alattas said, “We found ourselves really alone. I personally was not prepared for that." She says that a day after the lockdown started, she noticed she was experiencing symptoms and when she called the university health centre - that was indundated with Covid cases - they told her she could come and pick up a thermometer.

But Alattas couldn't go and said it was too risky to leave the house.

“So I called Rumeysa. She did not hesitate at all. She went to the University health centre, picked up the package for me, asked me if I needed any groceries or any essentials and then picked up those things too. She then delivered these things to me," Alattas told Middle East Eye.

US: Tufts University student detained for pro-Palestine views transferred to Louisiana

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“People were scared about Covid and being in close contact with others, especially those who had it, so I can't forget what happened next. She put everything outside my door. She knocked and messaged me. Then she stepped back from the door and waited for me to pick the items up at a distance. She was obviously scared to contract Covid but wanted to make sure I got what I needed.”

She recalls Ozturk organising a surprise birthday for her during the finals of their second year in December 2019.

“We were studying for this course together, and we were supposed to meet at the library. It was my birthday, so she planned with another classmate to surprise me with gifts, pastries and cake from the Hungarian Pastry shop, which was our favourite spot. That is a really nice memory.”

Alattas believes their shared experience as international students brought them closer together, an experience most people don't understand.

“It can be a very lonely journey, but during that time you meet some people, and they make it a little bit easier for you. For me, Rumeysa was one of those people because she's a genuine person. She really made being a student abroad easier for me in that sense, and I feel like we shared a connection."

Alattas describes Ozturk as sweet, kind and gentle, which she said made her detention by ICE even more shocking.

Shock

Alattas had last spoken to Ozturk a few weeks before she was detained and describes the shock and horror she felt when she found out about her friend’s fate on Instagram.

“I saw a video that featured her name. I looked at the video, and it was so shocking. It was terrifying. The way she screamed, the way they approached her. It looks like a kidnapping. It does not look like an arrest. They did not look like police. They didn't act like police. They were masked.

Alattas said her friend’s detention by ICE was made even more upsetting as she only had one more year left of study. “It’s so unfair because she has one more year of her PhD,” she added.

“As someone who's been abroad, studied abroad, I know all the hard work, the sacrifice that she puts into her studies, and now if her visa is revoked, all the work will amount to nothing.”

Alattas is not the only person who is traumatised by what has happened to Ozturk. Reyyan Bilge, an assistant teaching professor in psychology at Northeastern University, who has known Ozturk for a decade, says she broke down last week after discovering what had happened to her former student and research assistant.

‘What’s the point of actually staying here if we’re afraid of our wellbeing here?’

- Reyyan Bilge, Tufts alumnus

Bilge, a Tufts alumnus, said Ozturk was one of her first students when she began teaching at Istanbul Sehir University. She described Ozturk as a “remarkable person”.

“She's one of the most exceptional students that I have had. She's remarkable, really ambitious and hardworking. She's a nice, quiet and peaceful person who cares about others. When you talk to her, you see she's not a threat to anyone. She’s not aggressive in any way," Bilge told MEE.

Bilge added that Ozturk was "soft spoken" and was never discriminatory towards anyone, and said she had never even heard her use a swear word.

“I did not for a second think that ICE would target a student with a valid visa,” she added. “We're talking about a successful student who earned a Fulbright scholarship to come from Turkey to do her master's and then continued to do her PhD. We're talking about a person who fully deserves where she is today.”

Ozturk’s department posted a tribute to her on Friday, describing her as a “valued member of our community” whose “genuineness and care for others have been felt deeply here at Tufts”.

One fellow faculty member, who was not named, said, “She goes above and beyond to help create an inspiring and inclusive learning environment where students feel valued and empowered. Rumeysa’s motivation, patience, empathy, and ability to engage with students is inspiring. She consistently offers creative and innovative ideas while remaining open to others’ perspectives, serving as a role model to our learning community. Her collaborative spirit, intellectual curiosity, positive attitude, and remarkable ability to foster a genuine passion for learning have left an indelible mark on all of our lives.”

Fellow students said, “Even in a department focused on human development, Rumeysa stands out as someone who reminds us daily of the importance of protecting children, cultivating joy, and connecting to our own deeper humanity. We are not the same without her steady, gentle presence”.

Bilge says Ozturk's story serves as a wider reminder to all foreigners in the US.

“It's so heartbreaking and hurtful to realise that this could happen to her because I'm thinking, what if I was not a US citizen? What if my kids were not US citizens? What's the point of actually staying here if we're afraid of our wellbeing here?”