‘We gave you visa to study…not to become social activist’: Rubio on revoking visa of detained Turkish student

WASHINGTON, DC: The US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said that the visa of Turkish student Rumeysa Ozturk has been revoked due to her engagement in activities beyond the scope of her student visa.

While addressing a joint news conference with Guyanese President Irfaan Ali in Georgetown, Guyana, Rubio said, “We revoked her visa…We gave you a visa to come and study and get a degree, not to become a social activist that tears up our university campuses.”

Rubio emphasised that the US expects international students to adhere to the terms of their visas. “If we’ve given you a visa and then you decide to do that, we’re going to take it away,” he stated.

On Tuesday, an international student in a graduate program at Tufts University was taken into federal custody outside an off-campus apartment building, according to the university’s president and an attorney representing the student, The New York Times reported

The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen, had a valid student visa as a doctoral student at Tufts, according to a statement from her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai.

According to The New York Times, Ozturk, who is Muslim, was heading out to break her Ramadan fast with friends Tuesday night when she was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security near her apartment in Somerville, Mass, Khanbabai said.

“We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her,” the lawyer said. “No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of.”

A statement attributed to a senior spokesman for Homeland Security claimed on Wednesday that Ozturk had “engaged in activities in support of” Hamas considered “grounds for visa issuance to be terminated.”

Late on Tuesday, Judge Indira Talwani of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts had ordered the government not to move Ozturk out of the state without advance written notice to the court. It was not immediately clear on Wednesday whether the government had provided written notice of her removal from Massachusetts.

Ozturk filed a court petition asking a judge to determine whether her detention was lawful, and it named as respondents Patricia Hyde, the acting director of the I.C.E. field office in Boston, and other agency officials, as per The New York Times.

On Tuesday night, the president of Tufts, Sunil Kumar, wrote in an email to the university community that administrators had no prior knowledge of the plan to detain the student and that they did not share any information with federal authorities ahead of time.

“We realize that tonight’s news will be distressing to some members of our community, particularly the members of our international community,” Kumar wrote.

Ozturk was listed as one of several authors of an opinion essay published last March in the Tufts student newspaper. The essay criticized university leaders for their response to demands that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest itself from companies with ties to Israel.

She is one of several students who have been targeted for deportation by the Trump administration. Alireza Doroudi, an Iranian citizen and doctoral student at the University of Alabama, was detained off campus by federal immigration officials, the school said in a statement on Wednesday. It was not clear why the student was targeted, and US immigration officials did not immediately respond to questions on Wednesday evening. (ANI)