A federal judge ruled this week that the Trump administration must restore the student and exchange visitor information system record for Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish national and doctoral student at Tufts University in the Boston area.
SEVIS records are necessary for non-immigrant students to study and work in the United States.
Denise Casper, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, stated in her order that Ozturk demonstrated suffering “irreparable harm” because “she continues to lose out on paid on-campus employment in which she would otherwise be engaged.”
Ozturk, who was slated to graduate next year, also lost out “on a unique opportunity to work with her adviser on a project that would further her doctoral training and professional development,” the judge wrote.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant U.S. secretary of homeland security for public affairs, told JNS that the Trump administration removed Ozturk’s record because her “student visa had been revoked by the State Department, and she was subject to removal proceedings.”
“Visas provided to foreign students to live, study and work in the United States are a privilege, not a right, no matter what this or any other activist judicial ruling says,” McLaughlin told JNS. “The Trump administration is committed to restoring the rule of law and common sense to our immigration system and will continue to fight for the arrest, detention and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country.”
ICE arrested the Tufts student in March. A senior spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security told JNS at the time that “glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be terminated.”
