The American immigration authorities have arrested a doctoral student at the University of Alabama, as confirmed on Wednesday responsible for the campus.
A spokesman for the main State University said in a brief statement that a student was arrested “outside the campus” by federal immigration agents, but refused to make more statements, citing privacy laws.
The justification of the US government to stop the student is not clear, and the United States immigration and customs control service (ICE) did not respond to a request for The Guardian Late in Wednesday.
The news of the arrest occurs at a time when the Trump administration is increasingly pointing to university students to arrest them and deport them throughout the country, including people who are in the United States with permanent visas and residences, which has made alarms jump on campus and in the surrounding communities.
He Crimson Whitea student newspaper from the University of Alabama, reported on the arrest, collecting that the student in question was arrested at his home early Tuesday morning. He is Iranian and was in the United States with a student visa and studying mechanical engineering, according to the newspaper. The College Democrats group of the University says in a statement that Trump and the ICE “have nailed a cold and ruthless dagger in the heart of the international community of the University of Alabama.”
On Wednesday night it was not clear if the detained student had a lawyer. Alex House, a college spokesman, said that his International Student and Scholars Services Center was available to help students with problems: “International students studying at the University are valuable members of the university community.”
But House’s statement added that the university “has complied with and will continue to comply with all immigration laws and cooperate with federal authorities.”
Another Turkish student arrested
Alabama’s arrest was confirmed the same day the news was known that Rumeysa Ozturb, a doctoral student at the Boston University University, had been arrested by federal immigration agents and transferred to a detention center of the ICE in Louisiana. His arrest seems part of the energetic measures of the US government against students linked to the proportive activism on the campus last year.
The National Security Department (DHS) indicated that OzTurb was in the United States and accused her of supporting Hamas, but did not provide evidence about her statements. The media indicate that Ozturb, Fulbright Fecaria and Turkish citizen, co -written in March 2024 an opinion article in the Tufts student newspaper, along with three other authors, in which he supported the requests that the University “recognized the Palestinian genocide.”
The arrest of OzTurb has caused generalized outrage when circulating a video in which masked agents are seen from the countryman, approaching her on the street and taking her detained. A 32 -year -old computer engineer whose surveillance camera recorded the arrest declared Associated Press that “it seemed a kidnapping.”
“We unequivocally condemn the kidnapping of a young Muslim who was carrying Hiyab by federal agents masked in broad daylight. This alarming act of repression is a direct attack on freedom of expression and academic freedom,” says the director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Massachusetts, a Muslim organization of civil rights.
Ozturb’s lawyer declared the New York Times that the young woman was going to break the fast from Ramadan with friends when she was arrested near her apartment.
The president of TUFTS stated that the university “had no prior knowledge of this incident and did not share any information with the federal authorities before the event.” He communicated to the university that the student’s visa had been “terminated,” added the president.
The ICE records suggest that OzTurba was transferred to Louisiana despite the fact that a judge ordered the DHS to notify whether the agents wanted to transfer it outside the State.
The DHS has also been subject to scrutiny for its attempts to Deporting Mahmoud Khalil, Palestinian activist recently graduated in Columbia and with permanent residence. On Wednesday, an American judge from Manhattan prevented immigration agents from stopping Yunseo Chung, a student of Columbia, also permanent resident, threatened with deportation for their participation in solidarity protests with Gaza.
Maya Yang contributed its information
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