Tufts student can resume research after Trump administration revoked her visa, judge rules

A federal judge has allowed a Tufts University student from Turkey to resume research and teaching while she deals with the consequences of having her visa revoked by the Trump administration, leading to six weeks of detention.

Rümeysa Öztürk, a PhD student studying children’s relationship to social media, was among the first people arrested as the Trump administration began targeting foreign-born students and activists involved in pro-Palestinian advocacy. She had co-authored an op-ed criticizing her university’s response to Israel and the war in Gaza. Immigration enforcement officers took her away in an unmarked vehicle, in an encounter caught on video in March outside her Somerville residence.

Öztürk has been out of a Louisiana immigrant detention center since May and back on the Tufts campus. But she has been unable to teach or participate in research as part of her studies because of the termination of her record in the government’s database of foreign students studying temporarily in the US.

In her ruling on Monday, chief US district judge Denise J Casper wrote that Öztürk is likely to succeed on claims that the termination was “arbitrary and capricious, contrary to law and in violation of the First Amendment”.

The government’s lawyers unsuccessfully argued that the Boston federal court lacked jurisdiction and that Öztürk’s Student and Exchange Visitor Information System record (Sevis) record was terminated legally after her visa was revoked, making her eligible for removal proceedings.

“There’s no statute or regulation that’s been violated by the termination of the SEVIS record in this case,” Mark Sauter, an assistant US attorney, said during a hearing last week. The Associated Press sent an email on Tuesday seeking comment from Sauter on whether the government plans to appeal.

In a statement, Öztürk, who plans to graduate next year, said while she is grateful for the court’s decision, she feels “a great deal of grief” for the education she has been “arbitrarily denied as a scholar and a woman in my final year of doctoral studies”.

“I hope one day we can create a world where everyone uses education to learn, connect, civically engage and benefit others – rather than criminalize and punish those whose opinions differ from our own,” said Öztürk, who is still challenging her arrest and detention.