Somerville, Mass. – A national and doctoral student at the University of Tufts has been arrested by National Security Department of the United States Agents without explanation, said his lawyer on Wednesday.
Rumeysa Ozturb, 30, had just left his home in Somerville on Tuesday night when he was arrested, said lawyer Mahsa Khanbabai in a request presented at the Boston Federal Court.
The video obtained by Associated Press seems to show six people, their covered faces, removing Oz’s phone while shouting and is handcuffed.
“We are the police,” the group members are heard in the video.
It is heard that a man asks: “Why are you hiding your face?”
Khanbabai said that Ozturb, who is Muslim, was with friends for Ifar, a meal that breaks an fast at sunset During Ramadan.
“We do not know his whereabouts and we have not been able to contact her. No charges have been filed against Rumeysa until the date we are aware,” Khanbabai said in a statement. OzTurb has a visa that allows him to study in the United States, said Khanbabai.
The neighbors said they were shaken by the arrest, which occurred at 5:30 pm in a residential block.
“It seemed a kidnapping,” said Michael Mathis, a 32 -year -old software engineer whose surveillance chamber captured the arrest. “They approach her and begin to grab her with their face.
The president of the University of Tufts, Sunil Kumar, said in a statement that the school learned that the authorities stopped an international postgraduate student and that the student’s visa had been completed.
“The university had no prior knowledge to this incident and did not share any information with the federal authorities before the event,” Kumar said.
Kumar did not appoint the student, but University spokesman Patrick Collins confirmed that OzTurb is a doctoral student at the School of Arts and Sciences.
The United States Democratic Representative, Ayanna Pressley, described the arrest “a horrible violation of Rumeys constitutional rights to due process and freedom of expression.”
“It must be released immediately,” Pressley said in a statement. “We will not stay as long as the Trump administration continues to dry students with legal status and attacking our fundamental freedoms.”
The Massachusetts Attorney General, Andrea Joy Campbell, called the video “disturbing.”
“According to what we know now, it is alarming that the Federal Administration choose to ambush it and stop it, apparently pointing to an individual respectful of the law due to its political views,” he said. “This is not public security, it is the intimidation what it will do, and it should be closely analyzed in the Court.”
The United States District Judge, Indira Talwani, issued an order that gave the government until Friday to answer why OzTurb was being arrested. Talwani also ordered that OzTurb was not transferred outside the Massachusetts district without a notice of 48 hours in advance.
But from Wednesday night, the online detainees of immigration and personalized application of the United States listed it at the South Louisiana Ice Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana.
A main DHS spokesman confirmed the arrest of OzTurb and the termination of his visa.
“DHS and DHS and (application of immigration and customs) Common sense, “the spokespester told the AP.
OzTurb was one of the four students last March who wrote an opinion article in the Diario de Tufts criticizing the university’s response to his Senate of the Community Union that approves the resolutions they demanded from Tufts “to recognize the Palestinian genocide,” reveals their investments and deviates from companies with direct or indirect links to Israel.
Friends said Ozturb was not closely involved in protests against Israel. But after the piece, his name, photo and labor history were presented by Canary Mission, a website that says he documented people who “promote the hatred of the United States, Israel and the Jews on the University Campus of North America.” The opinion article was the only cited example of “Anti-Israel Activism” by OzTurb.
Students and faculty in other places have also revoked or have been recently blocked to enter the US. He attended demonstrations either public support expressed to the Palestinians. President Donald Trump The administration of the administration has cited a rarely invoked statute that authorizes the Secretary of State to revoke visas of non -citizens who could be considered a threat to foreign policy interests.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in a park later on Wednesday, with a speaker after another who demanded his release and accused both political parties not to protect immigrants and defend the Palestinians.
“Rumeysa Ozturb free now,” the crowd sang, along with traditional protest slogans such as “free and free Palestine.” Many held Palestinian flags and homemade signs that supported her and oppose ice.
Zoi Andalcio, owner of a Somerville business, said he left with his wife and 3 -year -old son to speak against the “crazy” arrest of Ozturb and others.
“I am outraged as everyone else about these disappearances, kidnappings of non -legal citizens, which may or may not have spoken against the atrocious foreign policy of the United States government,” said Andalcio.
Roz Nazzaro, who held a sign that said “hands outside,” he said he fears that the country is going to an era of “Nazism” in which it simply disappears.
“There is no distinction between undocumented immigrants, documented immigrants, green cards,” said Nazzaro, a Winchester retired university administrator, Massachusetts. “They will be the citizens below, if you are of the wrong color, use a hijab.”
Before attending TUFTS, Ozturb obtained a master’s degree from the Development Psychology program at Teachers College at Columbia University in New York, according to an ex -student Spotlight article in 2021.
Reyyan Bilge, professor of psychology at Northeastern University and Friend, described OzTurb as a “soft and gentle soul,” deeply focused on research and not involved closely in campus protests.
The two met for the first time at the University of Istanbul Sehir, where Bilge supervised his thesis, before working in cognitive research and the publication of documents together. They remained close after OzTurb arrived in the United States with a Fulbright scholarship in 2018.
“During the 10 years I know her, he has never spoken wrong with anyone else, much less to be anti -Semitic or racist,” Bilge said.
The Turkish embassy in Washington said it was in regular contact with the Ozturb family, monitoring the situation closely and participated in “initiatives” with the State Department and the ice.
He added in a statement on the social platform X that was making “all efforts” to provide consular services and legal support to protect the rights of its citizens.
___
Offenhartz reported from New York and McCormack of Concord, New Hampshire. Robert Badendieck in Istanbul contributed.
