Judge Orders Restoration of Turkish PhD Student’s Immigration Record
The court ruled that officials probably acted unlawfully when they terminated her status.
Chief Judge Denise Casper of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction, determining that Ozturk is “likely to succeed” in her claim that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) action was “arbitrary and capricious.”
She instructed authorities to restore Ozturk's SEVIS record retroactively to March 25, the day that undercover ICE agents detained her in Somerville, Massachusetts.
SEVIS, a federal database managed by ICE, tracks foreign students. Terminating a student’s record not only prevents them from working but also threatens their lawful presence in the United States.
In a statement shared through the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Ozturk expressed gratitude for the ruling, saying: “I earnestly hope that no one else experiences the injustices I have suffered.”
She further reflected: “I hope one day we can create a world where everyone uses education to learn, connect, civically engage and benefit others — rather than criminalize and punish those whose opinions differ from our own. While I am grateful for the court's decision, I still feel a great deal of grief for all the educational rights I have been arbitrarily denied as a scholar and a woman in my final year of doctoral studies.”
The Department of Homeland Security has not issued a comment at this time.
Ozturk, a Fulbright scholar and PhD candidate in child development at Tufts University, was apprehended by plainclothes ICE agents outside her Somerville home on March 25, an arrest that was captured in a video that quickly circulated online.
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