Newsweek reported on Thursday that a student from Bangladesh had wisely chosen to self-deport after enduring "inhumane" conditions in ICE detention. Joytu Chowdhury, a 24-year-old former student at Illinois Wesleyan University, alleged "inconsistent access to drinking water, saying detainees sometimes had to wait extended periods for necessities. He also described food as repetitive and lacking nutritional value and said overcrowded, noisy conditions made it difficult to sleep, with lights often left on and little sense of privacy." Sounds like self-deportation was the way to go.
Oh, and his criminal record. "In August 2025, his student visa status was terminated. Chowdhury's criminal history includes convictions for driving under the influence and retail theft," a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told Newsweek.
Now we have more good news. WHDH in Boston is reporting that a Tufts University graduate is self-deporting to Turkey, citing "hostility" she has experienced in the United States.
LATEST: A Tufts University graduate who was detained by ICE in Somerville last year said Friday that she is returning to Turkey, citing "hostility" she has experienced in the United States. https://t.co/6KCB4Vg6hx
— 7News Boston WHDH (@7News) April 18, 2026
WHDH reports, with the help of the ACLU:
Rümeysa Öztürk completed her PHD program at the university in February, and now she has left the country to live in Turkey.
“The time stolen from me by the U.S. government belongs not just to me, but to the children and youth I have dedicated my life to advocating for,” Öztürk said in a statement. “With them in mind, I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state-imposed violence and hostility I have experienced in the United States.”
Öztürk’s move comes a year after a widely-viewed video surfaced that captured masked ICE agents arresting her on a street in Somerville on March 25, 2025 — in the midst of the war between Israel and Hamas. Her attorneys said she was taken into custody for writing an op-ed in the Tufts student paper that advocated for Palestinian rights.
Yeah, we're sure an op-ed in a student newspaper got her taken into custody. Fox News' Bill Melugin adds:
NEW: Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk, who was arrested by ICE last year, has chosen to return to Turkey, according to the ACLU.
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 17, 2026
"I am choosing to return home as planned to continue my career as a woman scholar without losing more time to the state imposed violence and…
The post continues:
… and hostility I have experienced in the United States - all for nothing more than co-signing an op-ed advocating for Palestinian rights," she is quoted in an ACLU release.
1. This woman didn't just write an op-ed. She self-identified as a member of Graduate Students for Palestine, a radical pro-Hamas group whose members, for example, signed the statement from Harvard students directly after Oct 7 blaming the murders on @israel.
— Bob Maistros🇮🇱 (@BobMaistros) April 17, 2026
2. A student who "endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization” is “ineligible to receive [a] visa" and visas are subject to immediate revocation.
— Bob Maistros🇮🇱 (@BobMaistros) April 17, 2026
She finished her PhD. Now she's going home.
— Jack Spitz (@JackSpitz5) April 18, 2026
Is there a story worthy of the news here, because I can't find it.
This is great news!!! Thankfully, we won’t have to hear about her anymore.
— Oscar Hancock (@OscarHancock15_) April 18, 2026
Great! I am sure Turkey is a better fit for her ideology
— @MaryLucie (@MaryLucie_ML) April 18, 2026
— ThinkingItThrough (@Thinkingitthou) April 18, 2026
I can only hope the millions of others like her feel the same hostility.
— Anthony A. (@americafirst_a1) April 18, 2026
— Beijing Biden (@BeijingBiden9) April 18, 2026
Good riddance, terrorist.
— Dennis Wayne 🇺🇸 (@DennisWayne79) April 18, 2026
Good. We have enough anti-American agitators as it is. 👌👋
— AmusingMantis (@Justin23488139) April 18, 2026
— Idie⚖️ (@idie05) April 18, 2026
Good news. 👍🏼 We don’t want any more hateful hijabis in the USA. Odious Ozturk can go infest Istanbul with her Islamic ideology. pic.twitter.com/D5LwNGDqsb
— Marcus Mendoza (@MendozaVictor50) April 18, 2026
— Cooter Duke III (@CooterDukeIII) April 18, 2026
She can write an op-ed criticizing state-opposed violence in Turkey to see what happens. If she had mentioned her activism in her student visa application, it would have been denied in the first place. The USA doesn’t need to import activists masquerading as students.
— Bala (@skorpien) April 17, 2026
She came to the United States, earned her PhD, and chose to self-deport to where she can practice her brand of Islamo-Marxism without government hostility.
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