Rümeysa Öztürk, a 30-year-old Turkish citizen on an F-1 student visa, was arrested by six plainclothes agents from the Department of Homeland Security near her home in Somerville, Mass., in broad daylight on March 25, 2025. She was transported in an unmarked car to various Immigration and Customs Enforcement centers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Louisiana. Six weeks later, she was ordered released from a Louisiana detention facility by Federal Judge William Sessions III of Vermont, and she returned to Massachusetts on May 10. 

Öztürk, a Fulbright scholar and doctoral student at Tufts University, had co-authored an article in the Tufts student newspaper that criticized the school’s response to the Israel-Gaza war. Her arrest led to widespread protests against the Trump administration for targeting students for their political views without due process. She was among more than a thousand international students whose visas were canceled and who have faced deportation.

Upon her return to Massachusetts, Öztürk maintained that “America is the greatest democracy in the world. I have faith in the American system of justice.”

Consider Öztürk's story and the state of democracy in America today. What are your thoughts?

Read the New York Times Story, "Tufts Student Returns to Massachusetts After 6 Weeks in Immigration Detention," May 10, 2025]

See the AP video of Rümeysa Öztürk being arrested by masked U.S. government agents, March 25, 2025.

[Photo credit: Demonstrators outside U.S. District Court in Burlington, April 14, 2025, calling for the release of Rümeysa Öztürk. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger]