Tufts’ Student’s ICE Arrest Makes ‘Absolutely No Sense’, Friend Says

A friend of a Tufts University doctoral student has told Newsweek that the reasons for her detention by federal agents outside her Massachusetts home “made absolutely no sense.”

Jennifer Hoyden met Rumeysa Ozturk while they were at Teachers College at Columbia University in 2019. She described her friend as peaceful person who just wanted to help children.

“The last time I spoke with her with the start of the month,” Hoyden said. “[She was] sending me photos, I know she’s continuing to pursue her passion at Tufts with her research on supporting children, specifically refugee children, through media representation.

“While she was at Teachers College, I can tell you that the only thing she organized, to my knowledge, was a Thanksgiving potluck that I was invited to.”

Why It Matters

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official said Wednesday that Ozturk had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas” and that this was the reason for her arrest and visa revocation. The student visa-holder’s arrest is one of the latest in a flurry of immigration enforcement by the Trump administration targeted at those seen to be pro-Hamas.

What To Know

Ozturk, 30, was arrested as she headed to Iftar, or breaking fast, for Ramadan in Somerville, Massachusetts, on Tuesday evening. Plain-clothes federal agents, who were wearing masks, were seen on surveillance footage surrounding her before placing her in handcuffs.

For the first 24 hours, it was unclear where the doctoral student had been taken, but it later emerged she is being held in a detention center in Louisiana. That is despite a Massachusetts federal court judge issuing an order that she not be taken out of the state.

“I was in shock,” Hoyden said. “You cannot imagine a more gentle, compassionate, kind human being, so the things that she was being accused of and the reason for her detainment made absolutely no sense. Just absolutely did not make any sense at all. So I’m eager for this tremendous mistake to just be corrected as quickly as possible.”

Hoyden told Newsweek that Ozturk never spoke about politics, as this was not at the forefront for her, and that she had not shared any critical words about her experiences.

In March 2024, Ozturk was part of a group op-ed that criticized Tufts’ links to companies tied to Israel. The piece asked the school to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”

This message, in support of Palestinians, has been linked to other students who have become targets for immigration enforcement agents, such as Mahmoud Khalil at Columbia University in New York.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has made it clear he will seek to revoke visas of those seen as supporting Hamas, despite arguments from attorneys for affected students that their clients are not supporting the terrorist group and are exercising their right to free speech. Rubio has said these views go against U.S. foreign policy.

Hoyden said she was concerned that there was too much emphasis on picking sides rather than being able to see both points of view and valuing human life.

“I’ve been uncomfortable all along with the commitment to naming one side as right and one side as wrong, and in the process of that, in the name of that, there’s been death,” she said. “And there’s been accusations and blame and fear, and I just feel sadness. More than one thing can be true at a time.”

What People Are Saying

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Ed Markey on X: “Trump sent masked law enforcement officers to arrest Rumeysa Ozturk—a Tufts University grad student with legal status—without a criminal charge. Disappearances like these are part of Trump’s all-out assault on our basic freedoms. This is authoritarianism, and we will not let this stand.”

Massachusetts Democratic Representative Jake Auchincloss on X: “Massachusetts has been welcoming students and immigrants for four centuries. The footage I saw today of Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk being detained by masked officers is contrary to that tradition.

“Ms. Ozturk has no reported record of violence or harassment; she did co-write an op-ed about Israel, with which I disagree. I have written about my opposing view. That’s how America works. Revoking her visa because of her political viewpoint is not how America works.”

Assistant Secretary for the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin shared a statement on X: “DHS + ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans,” McLaughlin posted. “A visa is a privilege not a right. Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated. This is commonsense security.”

What’s Next

At Tufts, the school’s president, Sunil Kumar, said in a statement to students and faculty Wednesday night that the college was standing by its Muslim students and that he would be looking for Ozturk to receive due process.