Federal Judge Questions ICE SEVIS Termination That Blocks Pro‑Palestinian Tufts PhD From Campus Work

BOSTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Thursday pressed U.S. immigration officials for an explanation after the administration continued to prevent a Tufts University PhD student who engaged in pro‑Palestinian activism from working on campus, nearly seven months after her release from immigration detention.

Judge Seeks Rationale

Chief U.S. District Judge Denise Casper, hearing arguments in Boston, said she was "struggling" to understand why U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) removed Rumeysa Ozturk’s record from the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) after she co‑authored an opinion piece in the Tufts student newspaper criticizing the university’s response to the war in Gaza.

"What’s the rationale for allowing the agency to have the discretion to terminate the record?" Judge Casper asked the court.

Key Facts and Timeline

ICE terminated Ozturk’s SEVIS record on March 25 — the same day masked, plainclothes agents arrested her in Somerville, Massachusetts, near her home, after the U.S. Department of State revoked her student visa. Officials said the sole basis for the visa revocation was the opinion piece, which criticized Tufts’ response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and urged the university to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide."

The former Fulbright scholar was held for 45 days in a detention facility in Louisiana. A federal judge in Vermont, where she had been briefly detained, ordered her immediate release after finding she had raised a substantial claim that her detention constituted unlawful retaliation for her speech in violation of her First Amendment rights.

Impact On Studies And Career

After her release, Ozturk returned to Tufts and resumed her coursework. However, ICE’s continued refusal to reinstate her SEVIS record has barred her from teaching and working as a research assistant, jeopardizing her academic progress and career development during the final months before graduation, Adriana Lafaille of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts told the court.

Government Position

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Sauter argued that ICE has discretion to update SEVIS to reflect when a student’s visa is terminated and when the person is subject to removal proceedings, as is the case with Ozturk.

Lafaille countered that the government has offered shifting explanations for its actions and highlighted that in April the administration rescinded SEVIS terminations for thousands of other foreign students — an inconsistency she said underscores the unusual treatment of Ozturk.

"This was one of several retaliatory actions the government took against Ms. Ozturk for her protected speech," Lafaille told the court.

The judge’s questioning signals skepticism about ICE’s justification and raises the prospect that the court could order the agency to reinstate the SEVIS entry so Ozturk can resume paid academic duties.

(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Lincoln Feast.)