Somerville, Massachusetts - A Tufts University doctoral student from Turkey was abducted in broad daylight by plainclothes immigration agents as the Trump administration continued its assault on free political speech.

Rumeysa Ozturk was detained late Tuesday in the town of Somerville, Massachusetts, the school's president said in a statement.

Footage showed her in distress as masked agents corner her on a sidewalk and handcuff her.

Ozturk filed a motion demanding authorities show lawful grounds for her detention and a judge issued a decision barring officers from removing her from Massachusetts, according to legal filings made public Tuesday.

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Yet Immigration and Customs Enforcement still renditioned her to a processing center in Basile, Louisiana.

Oztur is a a Fulbright scholar and doctoral candidate in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Developmen. In March 2024, she co-authored an article in the university student newspaper, The Tufts Daily, criticizing the college's handling of student anger about Israel US-enabled destruction of Gaza.

Thousands turned out in Somerville on Wednesday to demand her immediate release, according to the Cambridge Day.

President Donald Trump has taken aim prestigious universities that became the epicenter of the US student protest movement in solidarity with Palestine, stripping federal funds and directing immigration officers to deport student and staff speaking out against Israel's brutality.

Aside from Mahmoud Khalil, a green-card holder whose case has been the most prominent so far, Georgetown University post-doctoral researcher Badar Khan Suri, Columbia student Yunseo Chung, and Cornell University graduate student Momodou Taal have also been directly targeted.