Turkish student unlawfully detained by ICE agents in Massachusetts back home

Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was unlawfully detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Massachusetts, has returned to her home in Türkiye following the successful completion of her Ph.D. program in child study and human development.

“A little over one year after ICE unlawfully detained Dr. Ozturk in retaliation for co-authoring an op-ed in The Tufts Daily, the parties reached a settlement to resolve outstanding legal issues in federal court and to jointly move to dismiss her immigration proceedings,” a statement by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said on Friday.

Ozturk was studying at Tufts University as a Ph.D. student in child development, where she was detained by plainclothes ICE agents in March 2025 in Somerville, Massachusetts, after co-authoring a pro-Palestinian opinion piece in a student newspaper.

She was among several international students targeted in the Trump administration’s crackdown on pro-Palestine campus activists, including Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi.

“After 13 years of dedicated study, I am very proud to have completed my Ph.D. and to return home on my own timeline,” said Rumeysa Ozturk in the ACLU statement.

“The time stolen from me by the U.S. government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for. With them in mind, I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States—all for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights,” she added.

An immigration judge terminated the removal proceedings against Ozturk earlier this year, finding that the government had no basis to deport her. The government appealed that decision soon after to the Board of Immigration Appeals.

This week, under the terms of the settlement agreement, the government and Ozturk jointly requested termination of proceedings in front of the BIA.

"Rumeysa’s professional and academic accomplishments are impressive, impactful and inspiring, and her positive contributions to the field of child development will only continue to grow as she starts this next chapter,” said Jessie Rossman, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts.

“The government’s arrest and detention of Rumeysa was unlawful and harmful, as numerous federal court decisions have confirmed that the government had no basis for its actions aside from her constitutionally protected speech.

"Yet even as the government continued a relentless campaign against Rumeysa for nothing more than co-authoring an op-ed, she continued to navigate her studies and her advocacy with strength and grace, and she succeeded in her goal of obtaining her Ph.D. to work towards bettering the lives of children,” she said.

Under the settlement agreement, Ozturk was free to return to Türkiye without further interference by the Department of Homeland Security.

The government also expressly acknowledged that her SEVIS status had been reinstated and that she was in lawful status at all times that she was in the United States.