Rümeysa Öztürk returns to Turkey after immigration detention and earning doctorate

Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts graduate student arrested by immigration officials last year, has returned home to her native Turkey.

Her case gained national attention after video surfaced of masked agents arresting her on a Somerville street in March 2025. She was then detained for six weeks in multiple states before being released in May. Without her knowledge, her student visa had been canceled, ostensibly because she co-signed a Tufts Daily op-ed that opposed the war in Gaza.

The ACLU of Massachusetts on Friday said the government and Öztürk had reached an agreement to resolve her case and to dismiss the immigration proceedings against her.

In February, Öztürk completed her doctorate from Tufts’ Department of Child Study and Human Development. Öztürk said in a statement Friday that she was returning home "on my own timeline."

“The time stolen from me by the U.S. government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for," she said. "With them in mind, I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States — all for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights."

She called on universities "do better about listening and valuing all of their students as equal community members, rather than favoring some and silencing others." And she noted it is a privilege for countries to host international scholars.

Earlier this year, an immigration court judge blocked Öztürk's deportation, noting that the Department of Homeland Security hadn’t proved that Öztürk should be removed from the U.S. The government appealed.

Last week, that judge was reportedly fired by the Trump administration.

Öztürk's return to Turkey ends any further proceedings, the ACLU said. The agreement also acknowledges that Öztürk was in lawful status the whole time she was in the United States.