Gov. Maura Healey called out the apparent targeting of Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk for cowriting an article in her school newspaper and demanded answers from the Department of Homeland Security.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey is calling for answers from the Trump administration after a student was detailed by immigration authorities last week and sent to Louisiana.
Speaking with reporters Monday, Healey said what's been happening has not lined up with the promises President Donald Trump made on the campaign trail.
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"Donald Trump said that he was going to target criminals and get them off the streets — I'm all for that. But increasingly, what we're seeing is not that," Healey said.
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Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, was detained by masked, plainclothes ICE agents last week in Somerville. The encounter was caught on camera.
Ozturk had a valid student visa, which the administration revoked, accusing her of engaging in activities in support of Hamas. The government has not provided evidence of this, and Ozturk's supporters say she was targeted because of an op-ed she and three other students wrote in The Tufts Daily, a school newspaper.
"The Department of Homeland Security needs to provide information," Healey said. "We know nothing about the circumstances here. It appears that she's been targeted not because of crimes she committed, because she hadn't committed any crime. But she's been targeted because of what is free speech, and something that she signed on to in a student newspaper."
The article calls on Tufts to divest from companies with ties to Israel and "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide." It does not mention Hamas.
Responding Friday to a petition filed by Ozturk, Judge Denise Casper of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts said the government can't deport her while the court is considering the case.
"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," Casper said.
