Amid the US’ bid to curb pro-Palestinian voices, a Turkish PhD scholar was arrested outside her residence in Massachusetts on Wednesday, March 26, in the United States, by masked US border security forces.

The scholar has been identified as Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish national and student of Tufts University. The detention is the latest in the Trump administration’s crackdown against pro-Palestine protestors. Recently, two students including Palestinian activist and recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil and Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri, were detained by US officials.

According to reports, Ozturk was detained by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) while heading to an Iftar dinner.

Ozturk, a Turkish national, is a PhD student and doctoral research assistant at Tufts’ Children’s Television Project and completed a master’s degree at Columbia University as a Fulbright Scholar.

She was one of several authors of a 2024 opinion essay published in the Tufts student newspaper criticizing university leaders for their response to the genocide in Gaza and urging divestment from companies with ties to Israel.

Ozturk’s detention follows a campaign by Canary Mission, a pro-Israel website that blacklists pro-Palestine students and activists.

The Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MA), a chapter of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today condemned the “abduction” of the scholar by the authorities.