By Trendsetter Tribune 
In a major legal defeat for the Trump administration’s crackdown on campus activists, a U.S. immigration judge terminated removal proceedings against Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk on Monday, February 9, 2026. The ruling ends nearly a year of legal uncertainty for the Turkish scholar, whose arrest by masked agents became a national symbol of the administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.
The Ruling: “Failure to Meet the Burden”
Immigration Judge Roopal Patel in Boston ruled on January 29 that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to provide sufficient legal grounds to justify Öztürk’s deportation.
- Basis for Arrest: The government’s sole evidence for revoking Öztürk’s student visa was a 2024 op-ed she co-authored in the Tufts Daily student newspaper, which criticized the university’s response to the war in Gaza.
- Internal Contradictions: While the administration publicly accused her of supporting Hamas, internal State Department memos unsealed in January revealed that officials admitted they had no evidence of her supporting any terrorist organization or engaging in antisemitic activity.
- Retaliation Claims: A federal judge in Massachusetts had already determined in late January that the government’s actions violated the First Amendment, suggesting the arrest was purely retaliatory.
A Year-Long Legal Saga
Öztürk’s journey through the U.S. detention system was marked by rapid transfers and high-profile court battles.
| Date | Milestone |
| March 25, 2025 | Arrested by plainclothes ICE agents outside her home in Somerville, MA; the video went viral. |
| May 9, 2025 | Released on bail by a Vermont District Court judge after being shuttled to a Louisiana detention center. |
| Dec 5, 2025 | Federal judge orders the government to restore her SEVIS student record, allowing her to resume her PhD studies. |
| Feb 9, 2026 | Removal proceedings officially terminated; the ACLU announces the victory in federal court. |
Reaction from the Administration
The White House and DHS have reacted with hostility to the ruling, characterizing it as “judicial activism.”
“Secretary Noem has made it clear that anyone who thinks they can come to America and hide behind the First Amendment to advocate for anti-American and anti-Semitic violence and terrorism—think again.” — DHS Spokesperson
Despite the rhetoric, legal experts note that this ruling protects Öztürk from immediate deportation, though the government maintains the right to appeal the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA).
What This Means for Campus Activism
The Öztürk case is being watched as a precedent for several other foreign-born students currently facing similar charges, including Mahmoud Khalil of Columbia University. While Khalil’s case has not yet seen a similar reversal, Öztürk’s lawyers at the ACLU expressed hope that other immigration judges would now “decline to rubber-stamp the president’s cruel deportation agenda.”