Trump admin hammered by judge for effort to deport student solely because of Israel views

An immigration court shut down the Trump administration’s effort to deport a Turkish Tufts University graduate student whose supposed violation was co-authoring an op-ed in her school paper critical of the Israeli government, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

That student, Rümeysa Öztürk, who’s in the United States on a valid student visa, was arrested in broad daylight last year by masked Homeland Security officers wearing plainclothes.

Court documents unsealed Monday revealed that the arrest was based "solely on the inferences made” in her op-ed, which included criticisms of Israel for “oppressing the Palestinian people,” with Israel’s siege on Gaza now widely considered a genocide by a United Nations commission and countless human rights organizations, including two leading Israeli human rights organizations.

And, while the Trump administration had sought to deport her over her criticisms of Israel, immigration Judge Roopal Patel declared on Monday that the administration had “no legal jurisdiction” to deport Öztürk, the Times reported, effectively terminating the case against her.

Around the time of Öztürk’s arrest, Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified the arrests and attempts to deport Green Card holders that criticize Israel, arguing that such criticisms undermined the United States’ foreign policy goal of combating antisemitism.

Mahsa Khanbabai, Öztürk’s attorney, issued a pointed message to Rubio in the wake of her client’s victory against the Trump administration.

“We hope this decision serves as a reminder that immigration enforcement must always be guided by justice,” Khanbabai told the Times in an email. “If the Sec. of State can on a whim decide to revoke a person’s visa what does that say about impartiality, the rule of law, and transparency?”