Lawyers representing Rumeysa Ozturk said on Friday that she has reached a settlement with the U.S. government that clears the way for her to return to her home in Turkey after completing a doctoral program in the United States. The agreement resolves all outstanding legal proceedings tied to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's efforts to revoke her visa and seek her removal.
Ozturk, who finished a PhD in child study and human development in February, had been arrested by immigration agents last year amid a broader enforcement campaign that targeted students and campus activists with pro-Palestinian views. Her attorneys at the American Civil Liberties Union said the settlement ends the litigation and allowed her to depart unhindered.
The case drew attention when an immigration judge rejected the Department of Homeland Security's attempt to deport her in January. The Trump administration subsequently fired that immigration judge and continued to pursue appeals. The government was appealing the judge's decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals - part of the U.S. Department of Justice - and was awaiting a federal appeals court ruling to overturn the judge's earlier decision that had led to Ozturk's release from immigration custody in May 2025.
Ozturk's arrest occurred in March 2025 when immigration authorities detained her on a street in Massachusetts after the U.S. Department of State revoked her student visa. She was then held for 45 days in a facility in Louisiana.
The government identified Ozturk's co-authored editorial in the Tufts student newspaper as the sole basis for revoking her visa. That editorial had criticized her university's response to Israel's war in Gaza. Ozturk's legal team said that, in the settlement, the government acknowledged she had lawful status while in the United States.
"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," Ozturk said in a statement.
The Department of Homeland Security did not reply to a request for comment. Civil liberties groups had characterized the case as emblematic of an administration effort to detain and deport non-citizen students who expressed pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel views.
With the settlement now in place, Ozturk has returned to Turkey. Her attorneys and advocates described the resolution as bringing closure to a sequence of legal actions that included visa revocation, detention, judicial rulings, an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals, and a pending federal appeals court review.
While the settlement ends these particular proceedings, the public profile of the case had already highlighted tensions between immigration enforcement practices and campus expression. The legal documents and statements from the parties indicate that the government, through the settlement, accepted that Ozturk maintained lawful status during her time in the United States.
Summary of developments:
- Settlement announced on Friday resolved all legal proceedings involving Rumeysa Ozturk and the U.S. government.
- Ozturk completed her PhD in February and returned to Turkey after the accord.
- The case included visa revocation tied to an editorial, a 45-day detention in Louisiana, an immigration judge's January ruling rejecting deportation efforts, the judge's subsequent firing, and ongoing appeals that were pending at the time of the settlement.