Federal Government Detains International Student at Tufts

The university was told that the student’s visa had been terminated, its president said in a late-night email to students and faculty members.

An international student in a graduate program at Tufts University was taken into federal custody on Tuesday outside an off-campus apartment building, according to the university’s president and an attorney representing the student.

The student, Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish citizen, had a valid student visa as a doctoral student at Tufts, according to a statement from her lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai. Ms. Ozturk, who is Muslim, was heading out to break her Ramadan fast with friends Tuesday night when she was detained by agents from the Department of Homeland Security near her apartment in Somerville, Mass., Ms. Khanbabai said.

“We are unaware of her whereabouts and have not been able to contact her,” the lawyer said. “No charges have been filed against Rumeysa to date that we are aware of.”

A statement attributed to a senior spokesman for Homeland Security claimed on Wednesday that Ms. Ozturk had “engaged in activities in support of” Hamas considered “grounds for visa issuance to be terminated.”

Records from Immigration and Customs Enforcement showed that a person with Ms. Ozturk’s name was being held in a Louisiana detention center on Wednesday.

Late on Tuesday, Judge Indira Talwani of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts had ordered the government not to move Ms. Ozturk out of the state without advance written notice to the court. It was not immediately clear on Wednesday whether the government had provided written notice of her removal from Massachusetts.