Dr. Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts graduate student who was arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last spring, will return home to Turkey following a settlement between her lawyers and the government over removal proceedings.
The decision marks the end of all pending court cases for Öztürk in the U.S., which included government appeals of the reinstatement of her Student Exchange Visitor Information Status record, also known as SEVIS, removal proceedings and an unresolved habeas corpus case.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, which has been part of Öztürk’s legal team, wrote in a Friday statement that both parties had reached a settlement to “resolve outstanding legal issues in federal court and to jointly move to dismiss her immigration proceedings.”
In the statement, Öztürk said she was returning home on her own terms and called on American universities to recognize the privilege of hosting international students while acknowledging her advocacy for Palestinian rights.
“After 13 years of dedicated study, I am very proud to have completed my Ph.D. and to return home on my own timeline. The time stolen from me by the U.S. government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for,” she said. “As I start the next chapter of my life, I stand firmly in solidarity with academic communities in the U.S. and elsewhere who live in fear for nothing more than their scholarship, and with other scholars punished for their courageous advocacy for Palestine.”
Öztürk earned her Ph.D. in child studies and human development in February, nearly one year after her detainment in Somerville.
The government had appealed Öztürk’s immigration case to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which had not yet rendered a decision before the settlement was reached. A judge had previously dismissed the case due to a lack of evidence.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts had granted Öztürk a preliminary injunction in her SEVIS case, restoring her record. The federal government later appealed. Her habeas corpus case had sat before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which had also not yet rendered a decision following oral arguments in September.
“The government’s arrest and detention of Rümeysa was unlawful and harmful, as numerous federal court decisions have confirmed that the government had no basis for its actions aside from her constitutionally protected speech,” Jessie Rossman, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said in the statement.
