US judge halts deportation of Turkish student at Tufts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A federal judge in Massachusetts ordered on Friday that a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, who voiced support for Palestinians in Israel's war in Gaza and was detained by federal immigration officials this week, should not be deported for now.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old woman, was taken into custody by U.S. immigration authorities near her Massachusetts home, according to a video that went viral showing the arrest by the masked federal agents. U.S. officials revoked her visa.

"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," Friday's order in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts said.

The Department of Homeland Security has accused Ozturk, without providing evidence, of "engaging in activities in support of Hamas," a group which the U.S. government categorizes as a "foreign terrorist organization."

The DHS had no immediate comment on the ruling, which was welcomed by the Turkish student's lawyers.

Ozturk, a Fulbright Scholar and student in Tufts' doctoral program for Child Study and Human Development, was on an F-1 visa.

A year ago, she co-authored an opinion piece criticizing Tufts' response to calls to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide."

Her lawyers call her detention unlawful.

President Donald Trump has pledged to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters and has accused them of supporting Hamas, being antisemitic and posing foreign policy hurdles.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the Trump administration conflates their criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza and their advocacy for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and support for Hamas.

Several students and protesters have had their visas revoked by the Trump administration, which says it may have revoked over 300 visas.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; additional reporting by Nate Raymond and Humeyra Pamuk; editing by Diane Craft)