WTTW: Chicago Muslim Civil Rights Group Condemns Trump’s Immigration Crackdown of Pro-Palestinian Students
In this image taken from security camera video, Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Mass., Tuesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo)
Members of a Chicago-based Muslim civil rights organization and advocacy group on Thursday called on local elected officials to stand up against the Trump administration’s arrests of students who have shown support for Palestinian causes.
The calls, made during a news conference hosted by the Council On American Islamic Relations in Chicago, come as Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish student at Tufts University in Massachusetts, became the latest to be detained by federal agents.
A widely circulated video of the arrest on Tuesday shows Ozturk walking outside before being approached and handcuffed by several masked federal agents.
“We really call on our elected officials to stand up for what America is all about, which is freedom of expression and speech and not extrajudicial punishment of those whom those in power do not like or whose views [they] do not like,” said CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab.
A senior Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said federal authorities detained Ozturk after an investigation found she had “engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans.”
The department did not provide evidence of that support.
CAIR-Chicago Executive Director Ahmed Rehab speaks during a news conference hosted by his organization on March 27, 2025. (Courtesy of CAIR-Chicago Communications Coordinator Jordan Esparza-Kelley)
President Donald Trump has pledged to deport students who, he said, engage in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity,” a label the administration has applied broadly to those who criticize Israel and protest its military campaign in Gaza.
This month, federal immigration authorities also arrested Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil who helped lead pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. A University of Alabama student from Iran was also detained by federal authorities, the university confirmed, but it is not clear why the student Alireza Doroudi, as reported by the student newspaper the Crimson White, was detained.
CAIR-Chicago released a statement calling for Illinois elected officials to investigate and halt the Trump administration’s “politically motivated deportations of international students and scholars for their protected Free Speech,” in addition to demanding their release.
The organization also condemned Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza and called for a permanent ceasefire and the end of a blockade on humanitarian aid to Palestinians.
“We’ve been at this podium several times over the past few months making the same demands, the same calls to our public officials, and these calls seem to fall on deaf ears,” Rehab said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Contact Eunice Alpasan: ealpasan@wttw.com