Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University graduate student who was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last year, has returned to Turkey following the completion of her Ph.D. Program and the resolution of her immigration case. Her return marks the finish of a legal and personal ordeal that began in March 2025 when she was arrested outside her off-campus apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts.
Ozturk, a Turkish national studying child study and human development, was taken into custody by plain-clothed ICE agents on March 25, 2025, after her F-1 student visa was revoked. The revocation followed her co-authorship of an opinion piece in the Tufts student newspaper that criticized Israel’s actions in Gaza. She spent six weeks at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center before a judge ordered her release on bail.
According to a statement shared by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Ozturk said she is “very proud to have completed my Ph.D. And to return home on my own timeline.” She added that “the time stolen from me by the U.S. Government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for.”
The ACLU confirmed that both parties reached a settlement to resolve outstanding legal issues in federal court and jointly moved to dismiss her immigration proceedings. This agreement came after the Trump administration had appealed an immigration judge’s earlier decision to end proceedings against her.
Ozturk’s detention drew widespread condemnation from academic and civil rights groups, who viewed it as part of a broader pattern of targeting international students for expressing pro-Palestinian views. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated last year that hundreds of international students had their visas revoked for participating in campus protests related to the Israel-Hamas war.
Her case became emblematic of the heightened scrutiny faced by foreign students engaged in political activism during the second Trump administration. Surveillance video of her arrest by six masked plainclothes agents circulated widely, prompting protests on the Tufts campus and beyond.
Now back in Turkey, Ozturk said she intends to continue her career as a scholar and advocate without further disruption from state-imposed legal challenges. “I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing 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,” she said in her ACLU-released statement.
Tufts University has not issued a public statement regarding her return, though university officials previously expressed concern over the impact of her detention on academic freedom and international student safety.
As of April 2026, no further legal actions are pending against Ozturk in the United States following the dismissal of her immigration proceedings. Her return to Turkey concludes a chapter that began with an arrest over a student newspaper op-ed and ended with the completion of her doctoral degree amid international attention.
For updates on immigration policy affecting international students, readers can refer to official guidance from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of State.
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