Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national with a valid student visa, was arrested on Tuesday while on her way to meet up with friends to break her Ramadan fast, her lawyer said.
Federal authorities on Tuesday detained a Tufts University graduate student while she was on her way to break her Ramadan fast with friends, the student’s lawyer said.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national who was maintaining a valid F-1 student visa as a PhD student, was apprehended near her home by DHS agents while she was on her way to meet her friends, according to a statement from her attorney, Mahsa Khanbabai.
Ozturk’s attorney said they are “unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her. No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of.”
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement online detainee locator system has listed Ozturk as being “in ICE Custody,” but it does not include any further details.
DHS and ICE did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment.
Ozturk’s attorney filed a habeas petition in Massachusetts federal court on Tuesday to release her. As of Wednesday morning, the petition was not publicly available.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani issued a three-page order on Tuesday, blocking the Trump administration from moving Ozturk outside of the District of Massachusetts without first providing advance notice.
Talwani said a “United States District Court does not generally have subject-matter jurisdiction to review orders of removal,” but the court does have the ability to “preserve the status quo.”
Ozturk is a student at Tufts’s doctoral program for Child Study and Human Development, according to her LinkedIn profile. She has a master’s degree from the Teachers College at Columbia University.
In March 2024, Ozturk co-authored an opinion essay in the Tufts student newspaper, criticizing the university’s response to demands that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and “divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.”
Tufts University president Sunil Kumar said in a statement that the school received reports about an international graduate student being taken into custody by federal authorities at an off-campus apartment building.
Kumar said the university “had no pre-knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event.”
Kumar did not identify Ozturk in his statement.
According to Kumar, the university has been told that the student’s visa status was “terminated,” and they are working to confirm whether that information is true.
“We realize that tonight’s news will be distressing to some members of our community, particularly the members of our international community,” the university president said.
