A Turkish doctoral student detained by US immigration authorities following her pro-Palestinian activism has returned to Türkiye, a rights group has said.
"After 13 years of dedicated study, I am very proud to have completed my PhD and to return home on my own timeline," Rumeysa Ozturk said in a statement released on Friday by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
Ozturk, a student at Tufts University near Boston, was detained by federal agents in March 2025 and held in Louisiana for six weeks.
Footage of six masked agents whisking away Ozturk off the street as she went to break her Ramadan fast with friends sparked an outcry.
She had co-authored a March 2024 article in The Tufts Daily student newspaper criticising the college's handling of student anger around Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.
Ozturk's arrest drew condemnation from elected officials and others in the US.
Critics accused authorities of targeting students over their political views without due process, calling it a breach of civil liberties. The case also triggered protests at Tufts University and across Massachusetts.
No criminal record
After a court ordered Ozturk's release from detention, her case was terminated this week.
Attorneys for the Turkish student had detailed the decision in a filing submitted to the New York-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, which reviewed an earlier ruling that led to her release from immigration custody.
According to the filing, an immigration judge ruled on January 29 that the US Department of Homeland Security had failed to meet its burden of proving Ozturk was removable and terminated the proceedings against her.
Ozturk has no criminal record.
"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 said in the ACLU statement.
