Judge cites Betar US in releasing Massachusetts student from immigration detention
The militant group’s social media post about a man who attacked a Hillel vigil appears to have led directly to his arrest, the judge said
A demonstration for Israeli hostages staged by Hillel at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, shortly before a student was arrested for punching a Jewish student and spitting on an Israeli flag at the event in Amherst, Massachusetts, Nov. 3, 2023. (JTA)
(JTA) — A militant pro-Israel group’s recommendation appears to have led directly to the arrest of a foreign student activist, according to a recent ruling by a federal judge.
The ruling, freeing the student from immigration detention, names Betar US and offers the clearest answer yet to a question that has revolved around the Trump administration’s campus crackdown: How much influence have Jewish groups had over which students get arrested?
Betar US says it has handed over hundreds of names to federal authorities, and several activists in its crosshairs have been arrested. Until now it’s remained unclear whether the group is responsible for the arrests, rather than coincidentally raising the alarm about students already on the Trump administration’s radar.
But the recent detention of Efe Ercelik, a Turkish national arrested in 2023 for attacking a university Hillel gathering after Oct. 7, “seems to have been almost exclusively triggered by Betar Worldwide,” Judge Angel Kelley ruled last week, using the name the group uses in part on social media.
The judge added that Ercelik should be released from detention immediately because he had suffered “unconstitutional harm.”
Unlike some other pro-Palestinian figures caught up in the Trump administration’s deportation roundups, Ercelik has been charged with a crime involving violence against Jewish students. A former University of Massachusetts-Amherst student, Ercelik was arrested in November 2023 and charged with punching a Jewish student at a UMass Hillel vigil for the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
He was criminally charged with a variety of assault-related charges, pled not guilty and was released on bail, at which point he was ordered to stay off the UMass campus. He ultimately pled guilty to misdemeanor charges, receiving a sentence of probation and avoiding jail time that did not result in a deportable offense, according to Ercelik’s team’s legal filings.
The following academic year, he was listed on the 2024-25 athletic roster at nearby Hampshire College, five miles away. In May 2024 the Anti-Defamation League filed a federal civil rights complaint against UMass Amherst, citing Ercelik’s attack.
This April, Betar US published a social media post on X identifying Ercelik and saying they had “submitted his name for deportation.” The post included a screenshot of Ercelik from the anonymous pro-Israel watchdog group Canary Mission, which (apparently erroneously) identified him as a Columbia University student.
The next day, according to legal filings, Ercelik’s visa was revoked. The following day, the Department of Homeland Security issued a warrant for his arrest.
Three weeks later, according to the account in Kelley’s ruling, ICE agents arrived at Ercelik’s residence and detained him while saying he was now in the country illegally — despite his claim that he had already made plans to “self-deport” and return to Turkey.
This act, Judge Kelley said, amounted to a violation of Ercelik’s constitutional rights, including the right to due process. She ordered his immediate release on Friday, noting that while the acts of violence at Hillel that he is accused of are not constitutionally protected, acts of nonviolent protest are.
The senior rabbi of UMass Hillel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Ercelik’s detention and release.
Asked for comment, a Betar US spokesperson said Ercelik “naturally has no place in America” and emphasized its track record of identifying anti-Israel activists.
“As we have said time and time again, Betar is proud to submit names of jihadis who support terror and have no place in the US to government agencies,” the statement continued, adding that the group believes Massachusetts “is deeply dangerous for Jews.”
When asked if Betar US was aware of other instances of the group being directly cited as the reason for an individual’s detention, the spokesperson instead insulted this reporter.
Betar US’s founder, Ronn Torossian, was recently banned from participating in World Zionist Congress elections owing to threats he and his group had made against other Jewish slates. Last week the group announced the appointment of a new CEO: Jon I. Mantell, formerly the director of university housing and residence life at Yeshiva University.
