Tufts University graduate targeted by Trump administration returns to Turkey

A Tufts University graduate who was arrested by U.S. immigration agents last year as part of the targeting by President Donald Trump's administration of pro-Palestinian campus activists has returned to her home in Turkey following a settlement with the U.S. government.



Lawyers for Rumeysa Ozturk announced the accord on Friday, a week after the administration fired an immigration judge who had in January rejected the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's efforts to deport her.



The administration had been appealing that decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is part of the U.S. Justice Department. It also was awaiting a ruling by a federal appeals court in its bid to overturn another judge's decision that led to Ozturk's release from immigration custody in May 2025.



Friday's settlement resolved all of the legal proceedings, her attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union said, and let Ozturk return to Turkey unhindered after completing her PhD program in child study and human development in February at Tufts, which is located in Massachusetts.