An emergency rally has been called for 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Powder House Square in Somerville to protest a Tufts international graduate student being taken into custody Tuesday by federal authorities.
Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, a Turkish national, doctoral candidate and Fulbright Scholar, was taken from outside an off-campus apartment in Somerville, said Ozturk’s attorney and activists including the Palestinian Youth Movement Boston, the organizer of the rally. The Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts was identified as a co-sponsor of the Wednesday rally.
On Wednesday, Ozturk was confirmed as being in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in an online detainee locator. U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani ordered the government to not to take Ozturk out of state, The Boston Globe reported Wednesday – yet by late afternoon the website was showing Ozturk had been taken to Louisiana.
Ozturk “was ambushed by Ice agents on her way to an iftar dinner with friends after leaving her apartment,” Palestinian Youth Movement Boston said. “This marks the first known abduction and disappearance of a student activist in Boston and Massachusetts, but Ice has been abducting our community members increasingly over the last two months.”
A description from witnesses in the Globe said the abduction took place at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday on Mason Street in Somerville, with a half dozen officers in plainclothes and masks handcuffing Ozturk and driving off with her in an SUV. Somerville police officers did not participate, a spokesperson for the city said, and “neither interfere with nor take part in federal civil immigration enforcement activities.”
Video of the abduction was posted Wednesday by WCVB:
As in the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia student seized March 9, and others, the government justification for the abduction seems to be her participation in protest activity protected by the First Amendment – in this case concerning Israeli attacks on Gaza, land that president Donald Trump said he wants to “take over” and “own.” No criminal charges are known to have been filed against Ozturk, said the student’s lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, to media.
“This is an assault on freedom of speech and academic freedom. A valid visa isn’t a permission slip – holders of student visas are entitled to express their political views and are due the protections of the First Amendment,” state Rep. Mike Connolly said Wednesday. Connolly said he expected to attend the rally.
Officials react
The federal action drew alarm also from Gov. Maura Healey and U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, who called the arrest “a horrifying violation” of Ozturk’s rights to due process and free speech. The mayor of Somerville, Katjana Ballantyne, also said she was concerned by what she knew of the case – that it involves “a student with legal status detained for what appears to be the exercise of free speech.”
This is a horrifying violation of Rumeysa’s constitutional rights to due process and free speech.
She must be immediately released.
And we won’t stand by while the Trump Administration continues to abduct students with legal status and attack our fundamental freedoms.
— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@pressley.house.gov) March 26, 2025 at 2:59 PM
“Rumeysa Ozturk has a First Amendment right to free speech and a right to due process and that must be upheld, just as all immigration detainees have rights that must be respected without exception if we are to be a nation that follows the rule of law and values our constitutional freedoms and liberties,” Ballantyne said. “Our rights are being threatened in a variety of ways right now and Somerville will make use of the law and our voices to defend them.”
Ballantyne’s administration recently filed a lawsuit with Chelsea against the federal government over its threats against immigrant sanctuary cities. “We cannot sit by idly,” the mayor said.
First they came for students who led protests, then those who joined, then those who just wrote an op-ed.
It’s only been 2 months. They’re starting with the most vulnerable—but they’ll come for anyone who speaks out – including us.
This is the moment to overreact and not let it go.
— Cllr. Burhan Azeem (@burhanazeem.bsky.social) March 26, 2025 at 3:17 PM
In neighboring Cambridge, city councillor Burhan Azeem said the action against Ozturk was part of a clear pattern. “First they came for students who led protests, then those who joined, then those who just wrote an op-ed,” he said, referring to the most obvious reason she may have drawn federal attention: being one of four writers of a letter posted in the spring of 2024 about violence in the Middle East. “It’s only been two months. They’re starting with the most vulnerable – but they’ll come for anyone who speaks out, including us. This is the moment to overreact and not let it go.”
Tufts president’s statement
Tufts president Sunil Kumar sent a community email late Tuesday saying the university was told after the abduction that “the student’s visa has been terminated, and we seek to confirm whether that information is true.”
Nothing else was known by Tufts at the time “about the cause or circumstances of the student’s apprehension,” but officials are trying to learn more, Kumar said. “Following university protocol, the Office of University Counsel will assist in connecting the student to external legal resources should the individual request our assistance.”
“The university had no preknowledge of this incident and did not share any information with federal authorities prior to the event, and the location where this took place is not affiliated with Tufts University,” Kumar said. “We realize that tonight’s news will be distressing to some members of our community, particularly the members of our international community. We will continue to provide information, support and resources.”
Nathan Tufts/Powderhouse Park, College Avenue and Broadway, Somerville
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Why is our neighborhood paper promoting anarchy and breaking the law? The subject of this story will be awarded due process and face a judge that will hear the case and decide.
No such thing as “abduction and disappearance” by law enforcement in a democratic government.
Get your heads straight.
One of the points of this protest is that Ozturk and others kidnapped by ICE/DHS have not been awarded due process and have been essentially disappeared. Anyone who’s been paying attention has seen the aggressive attack on democracy and our constitutional rights under this administration. And if that’s not worth protesting, I don’t know what is.
Also, peaceful protest is not “anarchy” or breaking the law. Reporting that something is happening is not promotion.
As Timothy Snyder recently said, “If you accept that non-citizens have no right to due process, you are accepting that citizens have no right to due process. All the government has to do is claim that you are not a citizen; without due process you have no chance to prove the contrary.”
They kidnapped her and took her to Louisiana!!! So much for being a sanctuary city! Nobody is safe!!!
A judge ordered her to be kept in MA and they shipped her to a private facility in Louisiana. This is absolutely a kidnapping.
The response by the president of Tufts to the abduction of one of his graduate students for her political opinions has been pitifully bland. If you want to urge him to do better: President Sunil Kumar, 617-627-3300
president@tufts.edu