Campus Speech and Civil Liberties

On Jan. 29, 2026 immigration judge Roopal Patel terminated the Trump administration’s deportation case against Tufts PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk, finding DHS had not met its burden of proof and rejecting the government’s use of a “foreign policy consequences” clause. DHS on the record called the ruling “judicial activism” and labeled Öztürk a “terrorist sympathizer” without offering evidence, while Öztürk, her attorney Mahsa Khanbabai and Sen. Ed Markey hailed the decision as a precedent against the president’s deportation agenda; Öztürk had been seized after a Gaza op‑ed, detained in Vermont and Louisiana with alleged mistreatment, and was freed in May by a federal judge.