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A judge has asked the US government to explain why Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, has been arrested by the Department of Homeland Security.
Ozturk was detained by immigration officials in a Boston street on Wednesday while on her way to break Ramadan with friends.
Security footage of Ozturk’s arrest shows her being approached by masked immigration officials who take her phone and put her in handcuffs.
In other videos a bystander asks whether Ozturk is being kidnapped, prompting the response: “We’re the police.”
A DHS spokesperson accused Ozturk, without evidence, of supporting Hamas.
Last year Ozturk co-authored an opinion piece for her student newspaper calling on the Tufts University president to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide”.
Her name was subsequently shared on Canary Mission, a website that publishes personal information about individuals and groups it says “promote hatred of Israel, the USA and Jews”.
Some of those identified are Jewish.
Further reading: Columbia University in Trump’s crosshairs
