US Judge Reverses Trump-Era Restrictions on Pro-Palestinian Tufts Student
In a significant ruling, a federal judge in Boston has cleared the way for Tufts University PhD student and pro-Palestinian activist Rumeysa Ozturk to resume working on campus, marking a reversal of Trump-era immigration restrictions that had derailed her academic career.
Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper issued an injunction on Monday, ordering the restoration of Ozturk’s record in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS)—the critical database used to track foreign students in the United States. Judge Casper concluded that Ozturk was likely to succeed in proving that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had unlawfully terminated her SEVIS status on the same day she was taken into custody by plainclothes agents in March.
Ozturk’s arrest, captured in a widely circulated video, drew sharp criticism from civil rights groups. Her student visa had been revoked by the State Department amid a broader administration effort to clamp down on non-citizens engaged in pro-Palestinian campus activism. The sole basis cited for the revocation was an editorial she co-authored in Tufts’ student newspaper a year earlier, criticizing the university’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
Following her detention for 45 days in a Louisiana facility, a federal judge in Vermont ordered her immediate release, finding substantial grounds that her detention constituted unlawful retaliation in violation of her First Amendment rights.
Though Ozturk returned to her studies at Tufts, the administration’s refusal to reinstate her SEVIS record prevented her from teaching or working as a research assistant in the final months before her graduation. Her legal team petitioned the court to intervene, arguing that her academic and professional trajectory was being unfairly jeopardized.
In her ruling, Judge Casper noted that the government had provided “shifting justifications” for terminating Ozturk’s SEVIS status, at times incorrectly claiming she failed to maintain lawful student status. The judge wrote that, to the extent the government now acknowledges her compliance with relevant regulations, “it is all the more irrational that the government has imposed negative consequences on her that are inconsistent with that status.”
Ozturk expressed gratitude for the decision, stating, “I hope that no one else experiences the injustices I have suffered.”
The ruling not only reinstates Ozturk’s right to work but also serves as a pointed critique of immigration enforcement that appears to penalize protected political speech. As the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, has yet to comment, the case highlights ongoing tensions between immigration policy and constitutional freedoms on American campuses.
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