Newly unsealed court documents present the Trump administration didn’t have proof that Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk was supporting terrorist exercise when she was arrested and her visa was revoked, and the motion was taken as a result of of an opinion article she wrote that contained criticisms of Israel.
The documents, associated to authorized instances of college students whose visas have been revoked by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and who have been threatened with deportation final yr, additionally present the administration discovered it tough to seek out proof to help the revocation of Öztürk’s visa.
In most of the instances, together with that of student activist Mahmoud Khalil, the documents present the administration made its suggestions to revoke visas primarily based on the scholars’ involvement in protests criticizing Israel’s warfare in Gaza, regardless of arguments from the administration of antisemitism and help for terrorism. The administration additionally acknowledged it could probably face scrutiny in court given the protections granted by the First Amendment.
The New York Times was first to report on the unsealed documents.
Last March, Rubio posted on X that they “will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
That identical month, Öztürk was detained by a plain-clothed police officer exterior her house. The administration sought to deport her after revoking her student visa.
The Tufts PhD student had written an opinion piece, together with three different college students, criticizing the college’s response to student activists who demanded that Tufts “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” disclose its investments and divest from corporations with ties to Israel.
A State Department memo stated Öztürk’s visa was revoked following an evaluation that her actions “‘may undermine U.S. foreign policy by creating a hostile environment for Jewish students and indicating support for a designated terrorist organization’ including co-authoring an op-ed that found common cause with an organization that was later temporarily banned from campus.”
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin informed NCS on the time that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigations had discovered that Öztürk had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”
However, in a State Department memorandum launched as half of the tranche of documents, a division official wrote that DHS, ICE and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) had not discovered that Öztürk had “engaged in any antisemitic activity or made any public statements indicating support for a terrorist organization or antisemitism generally.”
The memo, ready for the performing head of the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, which handles visas, cited the opinion piece co-authored by Öztürk.
“DHS did not identify any alternative grounds of removability that would be applicable to Öztürk, including the ground of removability for aliens who have provided material support to foreign terrorist organization or terrorist activity,” the State Department official wrote.
“Although information provided by DHS/ICE/HSI does not establish any potential ineligibility for Öztürk,” the official really helpful her visa be revoked “based on the totality of the circumstances.”
The Trump administration was ordered final May to launch Öztürk, with the choose saying that “continued detention potentially chills the speech of the millions and millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens.”
A State Department spokesperson stated Friday that “the Trump administration is using every tool available to get terrorist-supporting aliens out of our country. A visa is a privilege, not a right. We abide by all applicable laws to ensure the United States does not harbor aliens who pose a threat to our national security.”
McLaughlin on Friday defended her preliminary assertion and claimed the opinion piece “recycled Hamas (talking points) and propaganda.”
“She makes a false genocide claim and effectively advocates for the end of Israel,” McLaughlin argued.