Turkish Student Returns Home After Immigration Settlement

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University, has returned to her home country after a yearlong legal battle with U.S. immigration authorities that began with her arrest in March 2025 over a pro-Palestinian opinion piece she co-authored.

Ozturk, who earned a PhD in child study and human development, completed her program in February and departed the United States following a settlement announced Friday by her attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union. The agreement resolved ongoing appeals by the Trump administration, which had sought her deportation after revoking her student visa. In a statement, Ozturk said, "I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States all for nothing more than cosigning an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights."

The arrest stemmed from an editorial Ozturk co-wrote in the Tufts Daily in early 2024, criticizing the university's handling of pro-Palestinian student demands amid Israel's war in Gaza. U.S. Department of State officials cited the piece as the basis for revoking her visa, though...