Turkey Arrest of Turkish student shocks university in the USA
US authorities continue to crack down on foreign students accused of supporting Hamas.
27.03.2025, 02:13
SDA
At Tufts University near Boston in the state of Massachusetts, a Turkish doctoral student was stopped and arrested on the street near her apartment by plainclothes officers from the Department of Homeland Security, according to several media reports citing the university president.
Disturbing images of the arrest
Images from a surveillance camera show several men in dark civilian clothes, some wearing hoodies, approaching the woman, who is obviously frightened and shouting loudly. She is surrounded and then taken away. According to the New York Times, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said the images of the arrest were disturbing. This is not about public safety, this is about intimidation. According to the New York Times, the student was on her way to break her fast with friends.
She had a valid visa, but a statement from the Department of Homeland Security on X says that a visa is a privilege, not a right. The student had campaigned for the terrorist Hamas. Her lawyer told NBC that he did not know where the woman had been taken and could not contact her.
Professors shocked
According to media reports, she was a co-author of an article in a 2024 student newspaper calling on the university to recognize that genocide against Palestinians was taking place. At the same time, the university was urged not to invest in companies with ties to Israel. The Boston Globe reported that acquaintances of the doctoral student had assured her that she was not a leader. Her professors were shocked by the arrest.
The arrest of Palestinian student Machmud Chalil caused the biggest stir. According to his lawyer, the graduate of Columbia University in New York has a green card and therefore an unlimited residence permit in the USA. The US government wants to deport him and accuses him, among other things, of distributing flyers with the Hamas logo on campus.
An Indian man was arrested at Georgetown University in the capital Washington. A spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security accused him on Platform X of spreading Islamist Hamas propaganda and anti-Semitism on social media.
