Homeland Agent Instructed to Hide Turkish Student's Visa Revocation

(MENAFN) A U.S. Department of Homeland Security agent revealed in court on Tuesday that he was told not to disclose to a Turkish doctoral student that her visa had been revoked before her arrest by immigration authorities earlier this year.

“It was the determination made that she would not be” made aware “that her visa had been revoked. We did not plan on alerting her,” agent Patrick Cunningham testified during a federal hearing.

The student, Ozturk, a doctoral candidate at Tufts University, was detained in March after co-authoring an op-ed expressing support for Palestine. Her visa was annulled without notice. This action follows a broader, controversial shift under the Trump administration, which began targeting international students with valid visas who voiced support for Palestine—despite protections under the First Amendment.

Ozturk was seized by masked agents on a public street, forced into an unmarked van, and transferred from her home in Massachusetts to a remote detention center in Louisiana, over a thousand miles away.

“The operation developed pretty quickly,” Cunningham testified, adding: “We made it a priority.”

While Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)—Cunningham’s unit—typically focuses on narcotics, financial crimes, and transnational criminal activity, the division was directed to prioritize Ozturk’s case solely due to her published opinion piece.

“I can’t recall a time that it's come top down like this with a visa revocation,” Cunningham noted, attributing the order to the U.S. State Department.

He also said that after receiving the directive, he consulted with Homeland Security’s legal counsel to ensure the arrest complied with the law.

Since President Donald Trump took office in January, Cunningham testified that HSI had been placing significantly more emphasis on immigration-related arrests. “The prioritization of that work has certainly increased,” he said.

Ozturk’s lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, told media that the revocation and subsequent detention are not grounded in immigration enforcement but instead represent a retaliatory act against constitutionally protected speech.

“Silent revocation” of visas, she said, constitutes a manipulation of immigration policy to target individuals for political expression.

Historically, visa holders facing revocation were formally notified and given the opportunity to appeal or address the decision—a process bypassed in Ozturk’s case.

In May, a federal judge in Vermont ordered Ozturk’s release on bail, stating that the government had submitted “no evidence” to justify her detention beyond her authorship of the op-ed.

Although President Trump pledged during his campaign to deport “the worst of the worst”—namely, violent offenders and gang affiliates—data indicates that most of those being detained and deported lack criminal records or pending charges.

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