US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday that he has canceled the visas of more than 300 “lunatics” in a crackdown against anti-Israel activism on American university campuses, including that of a Turkish student detained in Boston.
Asked during a visit to Guyana to confirm reports of 300 visas stripped, Rubio said: “Maybe more than 300 at this point. We do it every day, every time I find one of these lunatics.”
Rubio said the US would not provide visas for people who participate in movements involved in “vandalizing universities, harassing students taking over buildings.”
He did not provide evidence that Rumeysa Ozturk, who had co-authored an anti-Israel op-ed in a Tufts University student newspaper, was involved in those activities.
Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts, was detained Tuesday shortly after she left her home in the Boston suburb of Somerville. US government lawyers said in a court document Thursday that Ozturk had already been moved out of Massachusetts by the time her lawyer secured a court order that she be kept in the state.
She was moved to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Basile, Louisiana, the lawyers said, adding that they had informed Ozturk’s lawyers that she was being moved there and helped facilitate contact with her Wednesday night.
A senior spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security said federal authorities detained Ozturk and revoked her visa after an investigation found she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.” The DHS did not provide evidence for the allegation.
“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” the spokesperson said. “Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is common sense security.”
Friends and colleagues of Ozturk said she was not closely involved in campus protests against Israel. Ozturk’s only known activism, they said, was co-authoring a Tufts Daily op-ed, which accused Israel of genocide and called on the university to engage with student demands to cut ties with the country.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University on a student visa, is currently detained in Louisiana despite a judge’s order prohibiting her removal from MA.
She was apparently transferred from Massachusetts to Louisiana for deportation.
Her crime: Criticizing Israel pic.twitter.com/un8yXaMCsQ
— Hakan Copur (@hakancopur1) March 27, 2025
“To my knowledge, the only thing I know of that Rumeysa organized was a Thanksgiving potluck,” said Jennifer Hoyden, a close friend of Ozturk’s who studied with her at Columbia University’s Teachers College.
“There’s a very important distinction between writing a letter supporting the student Senate and taking the kind of action they’re accusing her of, which I’ve seen no evidence of,” said Hoyden.
Ozturk’s arrest appeared to be part of US President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport students who engage in “pro-terrorist, antisemitic, anti-American activity.”
Trump has also vowed to deport non-citizen “Hamas sympathizers” on US college campuses amid the wave of anti-Israel student protests since October 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Earlier this month, immigration enforcement agents arrested and detained Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian US resident and Columbia University graduate. Khalil had been prominent in Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which has called for “violent resistance” to Israel. The US government accused Khalil of having distributed Hamas propaganda. He is now facing possible deportation.
A University of Alabama student has also been detained by ICE, the university confirmed. The Crimson White, the student newspaper, reported that Alireza Doroudi, a doctoral student from Iran studying mechanical engineering, had been detained. But neither the university nor the newspaper explained why Doroudi had been taken into ICE custody.
US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, March 26, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP)
Ozturk detained by masked officers, was doxxed over an op-ed
Video obtained by The Associated Press appears to show six people, their faces covered, taking away Ozturk’s phone as she shouted before she was handcuffed.
“We’re the police,” members of the group are heard saying in the video.
A bystander is heard asking, “Why are you hiding your faces?”
Ozturk, who is Muslim, was meeting friends for iftar, a meal that breaks a fast at sunset during Ramadan, according to her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai.
Khanbabai, who said no charges have been filed against Ozturk, filed a petition seeking her release Tuesday and then an emergency motion Wednesday.
US District Judge Indira Talwani initially issued an order giving the government until Friday to answer why Ozturk was being detained. Talwani also ordered that Ozturk not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without 48 hours’ advance notice.
Rumeysa Ozturk, a PhD student at Tufts University, was detained March 25 by Department of Homeland Security agents in masks and plainclothes.
“We should all be horrified at the way DHS spirited away Rumeysa in broad daylight,” Mahsa Khanbabai, Ozturk’s lawyer, wrote.… pic.twitter.com/3FBLsmJtH0
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 27, 2025
The government said in its response Thursday that it “will set forth the timeline” of Ozturk’s arrest and transfer from Massachusetts.
The facility where she’s being held is one of nine in Louisiana that house immigrants waiting for legal proceedings or deportation, according to a 2024 report on ICE’s website. It’s situated on the outskirts of a rural town about 80 kilometers (50 miles) northwest of Lafayette.
In a statement Wednesday night, Tufts President Sunil Kumar said the university was “in touch with local, state, and federal elected officials and hope that Rumeysa is provided the opportunity to avail herself of her due process rights.”
Ozturk was one of four students who wrote an op-ed in The Tufts Daily last March criticizing the university’s response to student demands that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.
After the op-ed was published, Ozturk’s name, photograph and work history were published on the website Canary Mission, a website that describes itself as documenting people who “promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews on North American college campuses.”
Protesters rally in Sommerville, Massachusetts, on March 26, 2025, to demand the release of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University who was arrested by US federal agents the day before. (AP Photo/Michael Casey)
A large crowd gathered Wednesday night in Somerville to protest Ozturk’s detainment.
Speaking to the crowd, Lea Kayali, from the Palestinian Youth Movement said, “It’s important that we all remember what she wrote about and why she was targeted, which is Palestine.”
“It’s important for us to remember that this is not new for immigrant communities, and this is not new for Palestinians,” she added. “The US government is deliberately trying to target our movement and scare us into silence. But we will not be silenced.”
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