(AFP) – A US court has terminated removal proceedings against a Turkish student detained as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian campus activism, her lawyers said in a court filing Monday. Video footage showing masked federal agents arresting 30-year-old Rumeysa Ozturk in March last year sparked outrage online and added to concerns about freedom of speech and respect for due process under Trump.
Her lawyers said in a filing to an appeals court that an immigration judge had ruled that “the Department of Homeland Security had not met its burden of proving removability,” with the court subsequently terminating her deportation proceedings. Ozturk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, was apprehended on a sidewalk outside her home following an opinion piece she co-wrote criticizing Israel and the school’s response to the Gaza war. A judge freed her in May pending arguments after more than six weeks at an ICE facility in Louisiana.
“Today, I breathe a sigh of relief knowing that despite the justice system’s flaws, my case may give hope to those who have also been wronged by the US government,” said Ozturk in a statement. “Though the pain that I and thousands of other women wrongfully imprisoned by ICE have faced cannot be undone, it is heartening to know that some justice can prevail after all.”
Her detention had courted criticism from Turkey, where Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc called it “unacceptable for someone to be prosecuted because of their faith or their support for Palestine.” Tufts University publicly backed Ozturk, demanding her release so she can return to the school and complete her doctoral studies in child development.
Trump has targeted prestigious universities that became epicenters of the US student protest movement sparked by Israel’s war in Gaza, stripping federal funds and directing immigration officers to deport foreign demonstrators. Critics argue that the campaign amounts to retribution and will have a chilling effect on free speech.
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