JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Friends and family of a Tufts University student arrested by U.S. immigration officials are frightened and concerned for her safety.
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RUMEYSA OZTURK: (Screaming).
SUMMERS: In a video obtained by member station WGBH, six plain-clothes federal agents stop 30-year-old Rumeysa Ozturk on her way to Ramadan dinner and arrest her on the sidewalk. As Durrie Bouscaren reports for NPR, her friends and family in Turkey believe her arrest is tied to a doxxing campaign by an organization that says it combats antisemitism.
DURRIE BOUSCAREN, BYLINE: Rumeysa Ozturk knew she was being targeted.
FATIMA TUGBA YAYLACI: She's the sweetest person.
BOUSCAREN: Fatima Tugba Yaylaci is one of Ozturk's former professors in Istanbul, where she studied child psychology before winning a Fulbright scholarship to the United States.
YAYLACI: She texted me, and she told me that there is this doxxing campaign against her.
BOUSCAREN: Doxxing is when online actors publish your personal information online and encourage others to harass you. Think of it as crowdsourced cyberbullying.
YAYLACI: I didn't think this is that much of a serious issue, you know?
YAYLACI: Yaylaci says Ozturk asked her to take down photos of her on a university website because Ozturk was worried that her friends in the photos would be targeted too. Recently, a group called the Canary Mission published Ozturk's name and photo on its website. The group says it documents people that promote hatred of the U.S., Israel or Jews on college campuses. Yaylaci says that's not who Ozturk is at all.
YAYLACI: She is someone who would never harm anyone, who would never discriminate against anyone, let alone being, you know, antisemitic or racist or whatever - never, ever.
BOUSCAREN: The group's complaint about Ozturk is over an op-ed she cowrote with three other students in Tufts University's student newspaper a year ago. The op-ed renewed calls for the university to, quote, "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide and to divest from companies with links to Israel." Israel has denied it's committing genocide in Gaza. Reyyan Bilge is a psychology professor at Northeastern University who has known Ozturk for a decade. She says it's unclear why she was arrested.
REYYAN BILGE: It's probably the op-ed. There's no other explanation. But we don't even know that.
BOUSCAREN: Bilge says Ozturk is a bright student who cares deeply about human rights, children and the rights of immigrants.
BILGE: She wasn't active on social media. She wasn't active on any kind of protests. She was a bright student, but a regular student who was here on a valid visa, who was going to school, taking courses, doing everything that was expected of her.
BOUSCAREN: In a statement to NPR, the Department of Homeland Security said Ozturk's student visa was terminated because she allegedly, quote, "engaged in activities in support of Hamas." The statement continues, quote, "a visa is a privilege, not a right. Glorifying or supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated." Hamas is not mentioned in the op-ed. That only adds to Bilge's concern.
BILGE: And that's the scary part - is that if it can be created and these kinds of stories can be concocted for anyone such as Rumeysa, like, it could be for anyone. Anyone could be next.
BOUSCAREN: Ozturk is the third international scholar arrested by ICE and transported to Louisiana who have voiced support for the Palestinian cause on college campuses. Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to reference these arrests during his speech at an antisemitism conference.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: We must all commend President Trump's decisive actions against antisemitism.
BOUSCAREN: Canary Mission did not respond to a request for comment but celebrated Ozturk's arrest on social media. For NPR News, I'm Durrie Bouscaren, Istanbul.
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