"Pro-Israel groups credited for guiding Trump in arrests of international college students"
#International #Students #Arrests #Detention #Deportation #US #Colleges #Universities #Campus #Blacklists #Surveillance #Betar #CanaryMission #DHS #AccuracyInMedia
#Rumeysa #Ozturk #CanaryMission
A different angle showing the #kidnapping of Runeysa Ozturk by U.S. secret police in Massachusetts.
(via Daniel Boguslaw on Twitter)
The Trump administration has detained a Tufts University graduate student exactly one year after she coauthored a plea for "the equal dignity and humanity of all people," including Palestinians.
#Rumeysa #Ozturk, a native of Turkey, 
was "ambushed" late Tuesday outside her apartment,
according to a statement that her attorney provided to The Boston Globe.
Neighbors had seen agents in unmarked cars monitoring her apartment for two days prior to the arrest, the outlet reported.
Her arrest comes after the pro-Israel group #CanaryMission flagged Ozturk for having "engaged in anti-Israel activism in March 2024."
That activism, according to the group, consisted entirely of co-authoring an op-ed in The Tufts Daily, a student newspaper,
in which she and three other graduate students called on the school to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide" and divest from companies with ties to Israel, as called for in resolutions passed by the student Senate.
"We, as graduate students, affirm the equal dignity and humanity of all people," the students wrote in the article, published March 26, 2024.
Tufts University President Sunil Kumar acknowledged Ozturk's arrest in a Tuesday night statement that identified her only as an "international graduate student."
"From what we've been told subsequently, the student's visa has been terminated, and we seek to confirm whether that information is true," Kumar said.
Mahsa Khanbabai, Ozturk's attorney, told Salon that her client has a valid F-1 student visa and was "heading to meet with friends to break her Ramadan fast" when she was detained by DHS agents outside her home.
"We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her. No charges have been filed against [her] that we are aware of," Khanbabai said in a statement.
In a statement to Salon, a Trump administration spokesperson asserted, without providing evidence, that "DHS and ICE investigations found Ozturk engaged in activities in support of Hamas." The spokesperson did not suggest Ozturk had committed any crime, and confirmed that she had permission to be in the U.S. as a foreign student, but said that a "visa is a privilege not a right."
"Glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated," the spokesperson said. "This is commonsense security.”
As of Wednesday morning, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee database identified Ozturk as being "In ICE Custody." It did not list a location.
