Fulbright Scholar Arrested in Abduction Style on Street

Rumeysa Ozturk, who came to the USA in 2018 as a Fulbright scholar and is now a doctoral student at Tufts University, was handcuffed and taken into an unmarked vehicle by agents wearing face-obscuring masks.

Michael Mathis, a software engineer, said his surveillance camera caught the incident. He said, “It looked like a kidnapping. They approach her and start grabbing her with their faces covered. They’re covering their faces. They’re in unmarked vehicles.” Another video of the arrest at the corner of Mason Street and Electric Avenue in Somerville also emerged.

The Department of Homeland Security issued a statement about this, saying, “DHS and (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans. A visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is common sense security,”

In March 2024, Ozturk and three other students published an an op-ed in The Tufts Daily. The student community union Senate had passed resolutions calling for Tufts to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose what its investments are, and divest from businesses that are linked with Israel.

Although Ozturk was not much involved in protests against Israel, her name, picture and work history appeared on the Canary Mission website. The site claims to reveal people who “promote hatred of the U.S.A., Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.” For Ozturk, the only example mentioned by the site was the op-ed piece.

As word of her arrest spread, about two thousand people gathered in a park to protest against her detention.

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