Tufts University student targeted by Trump administration completes PhD

Öztürk and the federal government reached a settlement agreement earlier this month, resolving outstanding legal issues in federal court that led both the government and Öztürk’s legal team to request her immigration case be dismissed.

In addition to also allowing Öztürk to return to Turkey without interference by the administration, the settlement agreement reinstated her international student status, known as Sevis for the government’s “student and exchange visitor information system”.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, had previously terminated her visa, along with those of other students who had been involved in high-profile pro-Palestinian advocacy. The state department relied on a little-used authority to rescind the visas, accusing some of the holders of supporting Hamas, the US-designated terrorist organisation based in Gaza, although without providing evidence of such support.

“Dr Öztürk is an academic and scholar. The government’s unlawful actions against her forced her into the spotlight,” said Jessie Rossman, legal director at the ACLU of Massachusetts. “But in numerous publications over the past year, Dr Öztürk used this platform and her own words to educate the public about what she has experienced, to shine a light on what she witnessed other women in for-profit ICE prisons experience, and to advocate for global human rights with a focus on children.”

An immigration judge earlier this year terminated Öztürk’s case, finding that the government had no grounds to deport her. That immigration judge was fired last week, in a further attempt to reshape the immigration court system. Although the Trump administration originally appealed the judge’s decision, the government and Öztürk have now requested the proceedings be terminated as part of the settlement agreement.

Internal government records obtained as part of a separate lawsuit against Rubio showed that the government had no evidence, outside of the college newspaper op-ed, to revoke Öztürk’s visa and deport her.