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US judge rejects effort to deport pro-Palestinian student

By Reuters
February 11, 2026
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, speaks to reporters after urging a federal judge to order the Trump administration to restore her student visa record, outside the federal court in Boston, Massachusetts, US, December 4, 2025.—Reuters
Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, speaks to reporters after urging a federal judge to order the Trump administration to restore her student visa record, outside the federal court in Boston, Massachusetts, US, December 4, 2025.—Reuters

BOSTON: An immigration judge has rejected the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Tufts University PhD student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was arrested last year as part of its targeting of pro-Palestinian campus activists, her lawyers said on Tuesday.

Lawyers for the Turkish student detailed the immigration judge’s decision in a filing with the New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, which had been reviewing a ruling that led to her release from immigration custody in May.

An immigration judge on January 29 concluded the US Department of Homeland Security had not met its burden of proving she was removable and terminated the proceedings against her, her lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union wrote.