Thousands of protesters gathered to demand justice for Rumeysa Öztürk the day after her arrest on Wednesday beneath the windmill in Powder House Square Park at the southern tip of Tufts University’s main campus.
Öztürk, an international Tufts University graduate student from Turkey, was confronted by federal immigration agents in front of her Somerville apartment on Tuesday night on her way to iftar, the final meal during the holy month of Ramadan.
The 30-year-old’s arrest and subsequent transfer to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Louisiana is reportedly attributed to an op-ed she co-authored in the Tufts Daily News last March.
In response, the Tufts Grad Workers Union, Palestinian Youth Justice League, and various others organized a rally Wednesday evening, calling for Öztürk’s immediate release and support for Palestine.
A surveillance video released online shows Öztürk being approached by multiple federal immigration agents in plain clothing and masks partially obscuring their identities before she was quickly escorted into an unmarked car.
“Fascism is not on the horizon. It’s on our doorsteps. It was on Rumeysa’s doorstep last night,” said Leanna, who did not provide a last name, and is a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement.
Lia later introduced several key speakers representing different student groups, including the Tufts Grad Workers Union.
“I’m proud to call Rumeysa a colleague, a union sibling, and a friend,” said one speaker, who did not identify themselves. “The abduction of our union sibling in broad daylight for speaking her conscience is a chilling attack on the entire labor movement.”
Just moments before the rally, Öztürk’s lawyer and federal records revealed that the student had been taken to an ICE detention center in Louisiana, the same center where Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil is being held. This move violates an order from a U.S. district court judge who ordered ICE to keep Öztürk in Massachusetts.
A speaker from the Somerville ICE Watch Network emphasized the event was not just a rally, but a workshop for people to know their rights; they led the crowd in a series of call-and-responses, including information from a flier that contained the Luce Massachusetts ICE Watch hotline number.
At least two of the speakers, many of whom veiled their identities behind keffiyehs, mentioned knowing Öztürk personally. They spoke to her character and resilience as she’s held in Louisiana, mentioning that it is unclear whether she has been able to eat in captivity.
The Somerville ICE Watch Network spoke to the growing threat of deportations in Boston after 370 individuals were deported in Massachusetts last week.
In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that called for the removal of international students who participated in campus protests against Israel in an effort to combat alleged antisemitism, he said. In a statement to The Beacon, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security wrote their investigations had “found Öztürk engaged in activities in support of Hamas.”
In March 2024 opinion piece, Öztürk called on Tufts to acknowledge “the Palestinian genocide” and “divest from companies that have direct or indirect ties to Israel.”
Öztürk’s arrest is the second known ICE detainment of a student in the U.S. since Trump’s executive order. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who played a prominent role in the pro-Palestine encampments last spring, was arrested on March 10. Tufts, like Emerson, is among 60 universities under federal investigation by the Trump administration for alleged “antisemitic harassment and discrimination.”
Though the rally occurred on campus grounds, attendees were not all Tufts community members—they varied in age, ranging from some not even old enough to walk, to many who were senior citizens.
“We are each individual threads that make up a tapestry of resistance from Somerville to Palestine,” they said.
This was also a common thread in Leanna’s speech, where she brought up the U.S. Army DevCom Research Lab, which the Tufts School of Engineering hosts. This fact is why Leanna and others call for Tufts to cut ties with the U.S. military and Israel.
“We refuse to allow Massachusetts to become the testing grounds for fascism and capitalism Armageddon,” Leanna said.
Jeff, a member of About Face, an organization of post-9/11 vets who are against war and anti-imperialism, who served as a “non-grunt personnel” in the Marines, was deployed to Iraq directly following 9/11. He wore a jacket that said “Veterans For Arms Embargo” on the back, and spoke about how his time in The Armed Forces shaped his worldview today.
“I just realized that it was all based on a lie—multiple lies, actually. We shouldn’t be messing with other countries … we should take care of our own house first,” he said. “We have no right telling other countries what to do when we’ve participated in multiple genocides.”
Fatema, the executive director of the Muslim Justice League, expressed frustration with the current political status quo—which, to them, is exemplified in the lack of action by the Democratic Party.
“I don’t want your handshakes. I don’t need your fucking statements,” she said to elected leaders of the Democratic Party in Boston. “You know my face … You have watched people taken from our communities time and time again … People are here because they are tired of begging you to do something, so people are doing it themselves.”
Benny, a representative from the ICE Somerville Watch Network, said, “Elizabeth Warren is not going to save you. The Democratic Party is not going to save you. They did not save Rumeysa.”
The protest will be followed by another demonstration at the Somerville City Hall, 6 p.m., tomorrow evening.
