Muslim student filmed screaming as she was detained by ICE issues scathing blast against the US as she returns to her native Turkey

By JAMES CIRRONE, US NEWS REPORTER Published: 03:47, 18 April 2026 | Updated: 03:47, 18 April 2026 Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University graduate student who was arrested by plainclothes ICE agents last year, has finished her studies and returned to her native country of Turkey. Ozturk's arrest in March 2025 quickly became a high profile example of the Trump administration going after international students. Ozturk, who completed her Ph.D. in child study and human development, released a statement through the American Civil Liberties Union blasting the US government for its decision to detain her for six weeks. 'The time stolen from me by the US government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for,' she said. She added that she returned home so she wouldn't lose 'more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States - all for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights'.  On March 25, 2025, security footage showed Ozturk walking on a street in Sommerville, Massachusetts, when a group of six people approached her from all angles. They were masked and presented identification badges. She was heard screaming before she was put in handcuffs and whisked away in a black SUV.  The Trump administration defended its arrest of Ozturk, arguing it fit into its mission to combat antisemitism on college campuses. Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University student that spent 45 days in ICE custody, announced that she returned to her native country of Turkey after finishing her studies. She blasted the US for subjecting her to 'state-imposed violence' Pictured: Ozturk is led away on March 25, 2025, by plainclothes federal agents who arrested her on a street in Sommerville, Massachusetts The Department of Homeland Security said she was arrested after an investigation found that she had 'engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans'. Former DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin pointed to an opinion piece Ozturk wrote in The Tufts Daily in March 2024 that 'recycled Hamas talking points and propaganda'. The article criticized the administration at Tufts University for rejecting student claims that a genocide of Palestinians was taking place and for declining to divest from companies with ties to Israel. Ozturk, who has denied she is antisemitic, was taken to processing facilities in New Hampshire and Vermont before she flown to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. That detention center has been criticized for its allegedly poor conditions and possible abuse toward female inmates. While she was in custody, her legal student status was revoked by the State Department, though a court later ordered the Trump administration to restore it. This allowed her to finish her studies, though she was reportedly working on her thesis while she was imprisoned in Louisiana, more than 1,500 miles away from where she lived.   Ozturk spent 45 days in detention and was released in May after a federal judge William Sessions said her being locked up could chill 'the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens'. Pictured: Tufts University students protest Ozturk's detention on March 26, 2025, the day after she was arrested Pictured: After being released in May, Ozturk speaks with reporters outside the detention facility she was in for six weeks 'I put the government on notice that they should immediately introduce any such evidence, and that was three weeks ago, and there has been no evidence that has been introduced by the government other than the op-ed,' Sessions said. In January 2026, an immigration judge in Boston, Roopal Patel, terminated the Trump administration's removal proceedings against Ozturk, stating that the government had 'no grounds' to deport her. In April, the Trump administration fired Patel, who was appointed to the bench in 2024 by President Joe Biden. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.