Rumeysa Ozturk experienced an alarming forced detention when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents with masks carried her away from Tufts University in Massachusetts on March 25, 2025. A surveillance video shows immigration agents handling Ozturk before they guide her out of Tufts University's Somerville Massachusetts grounds as she desperately cried out for assistance.
Ozturk faces DHS allegations she backed Hamas activities although DHS does not disclose the supporting details. The authorities moved her to Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center against a previously issued judicial order that required her detention within Massachusetts.
Academic professionals along with civil rights supporters strongly oppose the manner in which Ozturk was apprehended. A crowd exceeding one thousand people demonstrated by Tufts University because they opposed how authorities handled her detention also showed their support. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell declared the arrest "disturbing" because she believes a thorough investigation should be conducted about the federal government's activities.
Tufts University administration declared no knowledge of federal operations but strengthened their backing of international students. Asim Ozturk reported the arrest to be a part of an anti-pro-Palestinian "witch hunt" because his sister previously co-wrote an editorial which asked Tufts University to acknowledge Palestinian genocide through divestment from Israeli-linked companies.
This incident demonstrates growing divisions between American immigration control and academic independence and political activism while creating substantial doubts about constitutional rights and the treatment of foreign scholars in the United States.