A federal judge in Massachusetts on Friday blocked the deportation of a Tufts University graduate student who was recently taken into custody by federal authorities.
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper ruled that Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student from Turkey, cannot be deported while Casper determines whether the court has jurisdiction over the case.
The Trump administration has been given until April 1 to respond to an amended petition and complaint filed by Ozturk’s lawyers, according to the two-page ruling.
“To allow the Court’s resolution of its jurisdiction to decide the Petition, Ozturk shall not be removed from the United States until further Order of this Court,” the judge stated.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has accused Ozturk of “engaging in activities in support of Hamas,” a U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist group that launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In her ruling, Casper cited the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian graduate at Columbia University who was arrested and had his green card revoked earlier this month for allegedly leading activities aligned with Hamas. Khalil served as a lead negotiator for students during talks with university administrators over last spring’s pro-Palestinian protests on campus against Israel’s military response to the terrorist attack.
Khalil’s arrest followed President Donald Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism in colleges and universities. His deportation was blocked after a judge ruled on March 10 that he must remain in the United States while the court determines jurisdiction.
Columbia University was one of many campuses in the United States where protesters set up encampments to protest the Israel–Hamas war in Gaza. Some of these protests escalated into anti-Semitic rhetoric, as protesters set up barricades that prevented Jewish students from accessing certain buildings on campus. Trump has said the government will not tolerate such acts, alleging that many participants are not students but rather “paid agitators.”
The order in Ozturk’s case was issued in response to a petition filed by her legal counsel, which sought her release after she was detained by federal authorities outside an off-campus apartment building in Somerville, Massachusetts, on March 25.
Ozturk was later moved to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Louisiana. Government lawyers stated in a court filing that the transfer took place before a court order requiring a 48-hour notice was issued.
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