MASSACHUSETTS - Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk was walking alone Tues-day night to meet friends at a dinner where they would break their 13-hour Ramadan fast, when six plainclothes officers suddenly encircled her on the street near her apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts, surveillance video shows.
The 30-year-old shrieked in fear when an officer in a hooded sweatshirt and hat grabbed her by the wrists as another pulled out a concealed badge on a lanyard and confiscated her cell phone. Soon afterward, the swarm of officers who had surrounded her on the sidewalk pulled cloth coverings over their mouths and noses, some of them wearing sunglasses. “We’re the police,” the officers said. “Yeah, you don’t look like it. Why are you hiding your faces?” a person not seen in the video can be heard responding. The masked officers handcuffed Ozturk and held onto each of her arms.
One minute after the encounter began, Ozturk was led into an SUV and driven away. The international student – who is originally from Turkey and on a valid F-1 student visa – was then driven “across multiple states,” including multiple government offices in New England, Ozturk’s legal team said.
The next morning, she was flown more than 1,500 miles away from her home to a staging facility in Alexandria, Louisiana – despite a court order about six hours after her arrest that Ozturk not be moved outside Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice. While in transit to Louisiana, Ozturk suffered from an asthma attack, according to an amended habeas corpus petition filed Friday. Throughout that period of time, Ozturk was not charged or given the opportunity to speak with a lawyer, according to the spokesperson. Then, she eventually ended up at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana. Ozturk is one of several international university students facing deportation following a Trump administration order to crack down on pro-Palestinian demonstrations on college campuses. (CNN)