US judge drops deportation case against Turkish graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk

WASHINGTON

A US immigration judge terminated removal proceedings Monday against Turkish graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, ending the government’s efforts to deport her nearly a year after she was arrested by US immigration agents, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Ozturk, a Tufts University PhD student in child development, was detained by plainclothes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in March 2025 in Somerville, Massachusetts after co-authoring a pro-Palestinian opinion piece in a student newspaper. Her lawyers said the judge found that the Department of Homeland Security lacked legal grounds to remove her from the US.

“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the U.S. government,” Ozturk said in a statement released by the ACLU.

She added that while the harm she endured could not be undone, the ruling showed “some justice can prevail after all.”

The Trump administration had argued that Ozturk was removable under the Immigration and Nationality Act, claiming her activities posed adverse foreign policy consequences and amounted to support for the Palestinian group Hamas. Ozturk’s lawyers have said the allegations were retaliatory and tied solely to her protected speech.

Following her arrest, Ozturk was transferred across multiple states — from Massachusetts to Vermont and later Louisiana — without prior notice to her attorneys, according to court filings. A federal judge in Vermont ordered her release on bail six weeks later.

Ozturk’s legal team challenged her detention as unconstitutional, arguing that it violated her First and Fifth Amendment rights.

In December, a federal judge ruled that the government had wrongfully terminated her student visa record, allowing her to resume her academic program. The government has appealed that ruling, though her visa record remains reinstated.

“The Trump administration has weaponized our immigration system to target valued members of our communities, including scholars like Rumeysa,” said Mahsa Khanbabai, one of Ozturk’s attorneys.

She said the case illustrated how immigration laws were used to silence advocacy related to Palestinian rights.

Jessie Rossman, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said the ruling highlighted the importance of judicial oversight in immigration cases.

“Without federal court jurisdiction, the government could punitively and unlawfully detain any noncitizen for months based solely on their speech,” Rossman said.

Ozturk’s separate civil lawsuit challenging her detention remains pending in federal appeals court. She is among several international students targeted in the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine campus activists, including Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi.

The Trump administration has alleged that Ozturk, Khalil and Mahdawi engaged in activities supporting Hamas but has not presented evidence to substantiate the claims.

An unsealed State Department memo revealed last month that US officials had no evidence against Ozturk beyond the article she co-authored for a student magazine, even as officials moved to revoke her student visa.

The internal memo, dated March 21, 2025 and unsealed by a federal judge, states that the Department of Homeland Security referred Ozturk for visa revocation after she co-authored an opinion piece in the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip.

US Sen. Ed Markey welcomed the judge’s decision while criticizing the case as unjustified from the outset.

"I'm grateful a judge has terminated removal proceedings against Rumeysa Ozturk. But let’s be clear: she never should have faced removal in the first place.

"Rumeysa is an example to us all of what it means to speak truth to power. Her courage and grace are inspiring," Markey said on the US social media company X’s platform.

*Diyar Guldogan from Washington, DC contributed to this report