US immigration authorities arrested a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University near Boston, Massachusetts, and revoked her visa after she expressed support for Palestinians during Israel's war on Gaza.

Rumeysa Ozturk, 30, left her Somerville home Tuesday evening to meet friends for the Ramadan iftar meal when she was arrested by Department of Homeland Security agents, according to attorney Mahsa Khanbabai in a motion filed in Boston federal court.

Ozturk's supporters say her arrest is the first known arrest of a Boston-area student involved in such activism under President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration has arrested, or sought to arrest, several foreign-born students legally residing in the United States who participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

These actions have been condemned as an assault on freedom of expression and the First Amendment to the US Constitution, although the Trump administration argues that some of the protests are anti-Semitic and contradict US foreign policy.

In turn, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the US Department of Homeland Security, said in statements to the X website that authorities concluded that Ozturk "engaged in activities that support Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that delights in killing Americans."

“A visa is a privilege, not a right,” McLaughlin said.

The nature of these activities was not specified. However, Ozturk's arrest came a year after the student co-authored an opinion piece in the Tufts Daily, the university's student newspaper, in which she criticized Tufts' response to student calls to divest from companies linked to Israel and "recognize the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza."

"Based on the patterns we are seeing across the country, it appears that her exercise of her right to freedom of expression played a role in her arrest," Khanbabai said. According to eyewitnesses, her arrest appeared to be a form of kidnapping.

After Ozturk's arrest, Khanbabai filed a lawsuit late Tuesday, claiming she was unlawfully detained, prompting U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston that night to order U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) not to remove Ozturk from Massachusetts without at least 48 hours' advance notice.

Despite the judge's order, Khanbabai stated in a motion by Wednesday afternoon that she had been unable to locate her client in New England and had just been informed by a U.S. senator's office that Ozturk had been transferred to Louisiana. She sought a court order requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement to grant access to Ozturk.

Democratic lawmakers condemned the student's detention, including U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who said the arrest was "the latest in a disturbing pattern of civil liberties being suppressed." A rally was held later Wednesday in Somerville, where citizens, students, and university professors demanded Ozoturk's immediate release. Neighbors said the arrest, which occurred at 5:30 p.m. in a residential neighborhood, shocked them. "It looked like a kidnapping," said Michael Mathis, a 32-year-old software engineer whose surveillance camera captured the arrest. "They walked up to her and started grabbing her with their faces covered. They cover their faces. They were in unmarked cars."

The Trump administration has targeted international students in its efforts to crack down on immigration, including increasing migrant detentions and imposing strict restrictions on border crossings.

Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in particular, have vowed to deport foreign pro-Palestinian protesters, accusing them of supporting Hamas militants, obstructing US foreign policy, and being anti-Semitic.

Protesters, including some Jewish groups, say the administration is mistakenly conflating their criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights with anti-Semitism and support for Hamas.

Ozturk is a Fulbright Scholar and a doctoral student at Tufts University in Child and Human Development Studies, according to her LinkedIn profile, and has previously studied at Columbia University in New York.

She was in the country on an F-1 visa, which allows students to live in the United States while studying, according to the lawsuit.

In a statement, Tufts University President Sunil Kumar said the university had no prior knowledge of the arrest, which he acknowledged would be "troubling to some members of our community, particularly members of our international community."

Ozturk was detained less than three weeks after Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and lawful permanent resident, was similarly detained. He is challenging his detention after Trump accused him, without evidence, of supporting Hamas, a charge Khalil denies.

Federal immigration officials are also seeking to detain a Columbia University student, a South Korean-born legal permanent resident of the United States, who participated in pro-Palestinian protests, a move that has now been blocked by the courts.

A Lebanese physician and assistant professor at Brown University in Rhode Island was barred from returning to the United States this month and deported to Lebanon after the Trump administration claimed her phone contained photos "sympathetic" to Hezbollah. Rasha Alawieh said she does not support the group but respects its slain leader because of her faith. The Trump administration has also targeted students at Cornell University in New York and Georgetown University in Washington.