The Committee to Protect Journalists joined an amicus brief on August 25, 2025, authored by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) in support of Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk in her appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Also joined by PEN America, Reporters Without Borders, and the Student Press Law Center, the brief expressed concern over the federal government’s potential use of the Immigration and Nationality Act to dissuade non-citizen journalists from reporting. 

Öztürk’s student visa was revoked in retaliation for an op-ed she co-bylined in The Tufts Daily in March 2024. On March 25, 2025, federal immigration agents arrested her, and she spent six weeks in immigration detention. Her case could have widespread consequences for other non-citizen and international journalists. The amicus brief underscores the constitutional rights of all journalists to cover and comment on public affairs, and of everyone detained to seek speedy judicial review. 

A copy of the brief can be found here.