“In the last 45 days, I lost both my freedom and also my education during a crucial time for my doctoral studies.”
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish PhD student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, spoke at a press conference at Boston Logan International Airport on Saturday, May 10, following her recent release from federal custody.
Ozturk was detained by six masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on March 25 for co-authoring an op-ed last year about Israel’s war on Gaza, published in the university’s student newspaper. Her deportation process was halted by US federal judge Denise Casper, and another judge, William Sessions of the US District Court in Vermont, ordered her release on bail.
