"At 10:31 a.m.": Tufts Gets the Email Telling It Rumeysa Öztürk's SEVIS Record Was Terminated — Twelve Hours After ICE Arrested Her

Dear Designated School Official, The Bureau of Consular Affairs of the U.S. Department of State is notifying you that on March 21, 2025, the F-1 nonimmigrant visa issued to Rumeysa Öztürk (DS-160 application reference associated with passport [redacted]) was revoked by the Secretary of State. The basis for this revocation is that the visa holder has been identified as a non-immigrant status violator and/or that the visa holder's continued presence in the United States would result in potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States, pursuant to Section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The associated SEVIS record (N00[redacted]) has been terminated effective March 25, 2025. The visa holder is no longer authorized to remain in the United States in F-1 nonimmigrant status, and any post-completion or pre-completion Optional Practical Training authorization is also terminated. This notification is provided to you in your capacity as Designated School Official under 8 CFR 214.3(g). Please update your records accordingly.

University Declaration for Rümeysa Öztürk Rümeysa Öztürk is a doctoral student in good standing in Tufts University's Department of Child Study and Human Development. She has been a member of our community since she arrived from Turkey on a Fulbright Scholarship in 2018 to begin her master's degree, and has continued her academic work at Tufts as a doctoral student researching how children develop relationships with social media and digital technology. On the evening of March 25, 2025, Rumeysa was taken into custody by plainclothes officers of the Department of Homeland Security as she was walking from her off-campus apartment in Somerville, Massachusetts to attend an iftar dinner. Video of her detention has been widely seen. The University was not contacted in advance of her detention. The University's first notice that Rumeysa's F-1 visa had been revoked, and her associated SEVIS record terminated, was an email received from the Bureau of Consular Affairs at 10:31 a.m. on March 26 — nearly seventeen hours after her arrest. The University is not aware of any allegation that Rumeysa has engaged in unlawful activity. Her co-authorship in March 2024 of an op-ed in The Tufts Daily — which expressed her views about Tufts' response to the war in Gaza — appears to be the only basis for the government's actions. Expression of opinion through a student newspaper is protected speech. Tufts University will submit this declaration, along with a sworn affidavit, to the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in support of Rumeysa's habeas petition. We continue to support Rumeysa, her family, and her academic department, and we ask that she be returned to our community without delay.