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A U.S. immigration judge on Monday terminated removal proceedings against Turkish graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk, ending the government’s effort to deport her nearly a year after she was arrested by U.S. immigration agents, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Ozturk, a Tufts University Ph.D. 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 the Department of Homeland Security lacked legal grounds to remove her from the United States.
“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.
The Trump administration argued 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.
Her lawyers said the allegations were retaliatory and based solely on her protected speech.
Ozturk’s legal team challenged her detention as unconstitutional, citing violations of her First and Fifth Amendment rights.
Mahsa Khanbabai, one of Ozturk’s attorneys, said the case showed how immigration laws were used to target scholars for advocacy related to Palestinian rights.
Following her arrest, Ozturk was transferred from Massachusetts to Vermont and later Louisiana without prior notice to her attorneys, according to court filings. A federal judge in Vermont later ordered her release on bail.
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 decision, though her visa record remains reinstated.
An unsealed State Department memo dated March 21, 2025 showed U.S. officials had no evidence against Ozturk beyond the article she co-authored, even as steps were taken to revoke her visa.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey welcomed the ruling, saying Ozturk “never should have faced removal” and praised her for speaking out.
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