US immigration officials detain Turkish student in crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism

Turkish student detained as U.S. cracks down on campus activism. (Pic: AP)

US authorities have detained a Turkish university student, the latest action taken against a foreign learner associated with pro-Palestinian campus activism as President Donald Trump cracks down on the movement.

Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was detained by federal agents late Tuesday in the town of Somerville, Massachusetts, the school's president said in a statement.

Ozturk filed a motion demanding authorities show lawful grounds for her detention and a judge issued a decision barring officers from removing her from Massachusetts, according to legal filings made public Tuesday.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detainee locator tool showed that Ozturk was in custody Wednesday, although it did not state where.

Ozturk co-authored an article in the university student newspaper The Tufts Daily in March 2024 criticizing the college's handling of student anger around Israel's war in Gaza.

According to the newspaper, Ozturk is a doctoral candidate in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development.

A protest was planned for 2130 GMT Wednesday in Somerville to oppose Ozturk's detention, according to the Cambridge Day news site.

Trump has targeted prestigious universities that became the epicenter of the US student protest movement sparked by Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, stripping federal funds and directing immigration officers to deport foreign student demonstrators.

Critics argue that the campaign amounts to retribution and will have a chilling effect on free speech, while its supporters insist it is necessary to restore order to campuses and protect Jewish students.

At New York's Columbia University, immigration officers detained one student, permanent resident Mahmoud Khalil whose lawyers are fighting his deportation, while a judge thwarted efforts to detain another, Yunseo Chung.

Separately, a number of university professors sued the Trump administration in Massachusetts Tuesday, arguing its campaign targeting foreign academics was illegal.

"The policy prevents or impedes Plaintiffs' US citizen members from hearing from, and associating with, their non-citizen students and colleagues," the lawsuit reads.

In addition, the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers asked a New York judge to declare Trump's slashing of $400 million from Columbia's budget unconstitutional and to restore the funding.

Columbia announced Friday a package of concessions to the Trump administration around defining anti-Semitism, policing protests and oversight for specific academic departments.

They stopped short however of some of the more strenuous demands of the Trump administration, which nonetheless welcomed the Ivy League college's proposals.