Scholar Rumeysa Ozturk returns to Turkiye following Trump deportation push

A doctoral student who was targeted for deportation under President Donald Trump has chosen to return to her native Turkiye, citing the “state-imposed violence and hostility” she faced in the United States.

Rumeysa Ozturk made the announcement through the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday, after a nearly yearlong legal battle with the Trump administration.

“The time stolen from me by the U.S. government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for,” said Ozturk, who received her PhD in child study and human development in February.

Ozturk’s case was one of the most high-profile instances of the Trump administration seeking to punish foreign students for their pro-Palestinian advocacy.

Surveillance video of Ozturk’s arrest went viral in late March 2025, showing six plain-clothed immigration officers suddenly surrounding her on the street outside her Massachusetts apartment, as she left to break her Ramadan fast.

The video captures a first officer grabbing Ozturk, then 30, by the hands, prompting her to cry out. As she is handcuffed, a concerned passerby questions the officers, who wear hoodies, sunglasses and marks: “How do I know this is the police?”

Ozturk has no criminal record. She appears to have been targeted for her decision to co-sign an opinion column in her student newspaper, The Tufts Daily, with three other students.

The article called on her university’s president to acknowledge the Israeli genocide of Palestinians and divest from companies with ties to Israel.

Afterwards, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused her of having “engaged in activities in support of Hamas”, though there is no evidence to back that assertion.

The Trump administration has cited the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 as giving it the power to remove legal immigration documents from foreign nationals, if the secretary of state deems them to cause “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

That breadth of that power, however, continues to be contested in court.

Targeting scholars and students

Ozturk was part of a first wave of deportations the Trump administration conducted against pro-Palestinian scholars, starting with Columbia University protest leader Mahmoud Khalil on March 8, 2025.

Before the deportation push, Trump had signalled that he considered pro-Palestinian activism to be anti-Semitic and had pledged to crack down on the widespread protest movement that erupted on US campuses in the wake of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

On January 29, nine days after being sworn in for a second term, he issued an executive order that said he would use “all available and appropriate legal tools to prosecute, remove, or otherwise hold to account” those he considered anti-Semitic.

Legal experts, however, have noted that protests and writing op-eds are protected speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Ozturk’s arrest ultimately prompted a legal odyssey that has continued through this week.

Shortly after being arrested on March 25, 2025, Ozturk was transported to New Hampshire and then to Vermont, where she spent the night in a detention centre run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Then, early the following morning, she was flown to Louisiana, where she was held for 45 days in ICE detention.

In an article for Vanity Fair, she described squalid conditions, including overcrowding, insufficient food, a lack of medical care and 24-hour lights that made sleep difficult. She said she suffered asthma attacks that worsened in the hot, humid Louisiana air.

Her lawyers had submitted a habeas corpus petition in a Vermont federal court, arguing that her detention was unlawful, and on May 9, she was ultimately released.

But her legal proceedings have continued in the months since. In February, an immigration judge dismissed the deportation proceedings against Ozturk, but the Trump administration appealed.

This week, the ACLU said Ozturk’s legal team had reached a settlement with the Trump administration to dismiss the deportation push. The administration also acknowledged that Ozturk had been in the US legally throughout her stay in the country.

In exchange, Ozturk would be allowed to leave for Turkiye without interference from the DHS.

In a statement announcing her departure, Ozturk explained that countries should understand it is a “privilege” to host international scholars. She also expressed support for other scholars fearing for their livelihoods and work.

“I stand firmly in solidarity with academic communities in the US and elsewhere who live in fear for nothing more than their scholarship, and with other scholars punished for their courageous advocacy for Palestine,” she said.

She added that she would put her 13 years of study to use in her native Turkiye.

“I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States,” she wrote.

“All for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights.”