A federal judge has ordered immigration officials not to deport Georgetown scholars in government custody until the court has a chance to rule.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of Alexandria, Virginia, ordered “Badar Khan Suri must not be removed from the United States unless the contrary order is issued to the court.”
Mr Surry, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University and an Indian citizen, was arrested Monday night outside his Virginia residence and officials identified himself as the Department of Homeland Security and told him his visa had been revoked.
Suri’s goal was because of his wife’s “Palestinian identity and her constitutional protection speech,” wrote Hassan Ahmad, Virginia attorney for Suri, in court documents. Court documents say Surry and his wife Mapheze Saleh “has been smeared and smeared for a long time.” The critic has published photos of Saleh online, including her former job at Al Jazeera and her birthplace in Gaza City “to support her relationship with Hamas.”
Nader Hashemi, professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic politics in Georgetown, told the Associated Press that Suri is very focused on his research and teaching. He felt strong solidarity and sympathy for the Palestinians, but there was no external politics on campus.
“We have organized dozens of events since the Israeli Gaza War began on October 7, and I don’t remember seeing him in any event,” Hashmi said. “That’s not who he is.”
Hashmi said Surry and his wife have been targeted by the right-wing campus groups, in part because Saleh’s father is Ahmed Yusev, a former consultant to Hamas.
Yousef confirmed to the New York Times that Suri was his son-in-law, adding that Suri was not involved in any “political activism”, including representing Hamas.
Yousef, who publicly criticized the October 7 attack on Israel, told the newspaper that he left Hamas more than a decade ago to run a government position and did not hold a senior position in a radical group.
The Alvared Center in Georgetown said in a statement that Surry’s arrest was “part of a campaign by the Trump administration to destroy higher education in the United States and punish its political opponents.”
According to the government website, Surry was later taken to a detention center in Louisiana. His lawyers are seeking immediate release and stopping the deportation process through a habeas order filed against the Trump administration on Tuesday.
“The Trump administration has publicly expressed its intention to weaponize immigration laws to punish non-citizens, whose views are seen as criticism of U.S. policy related to Israel,” Suri’s lawyer wrote.
His lawyer added that Suri’s detention was more than 1,600 kilometers away from his family and the lawyer “apparently for revenge and punishment for Mr. Suri’s protected speech”.
Additionally, Mahmoud Khalil, a student activist at Columbia University, is a legal resident of the United States with no criminal record. He was detained for participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations and is fighting federal courts. Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant expert who worked in Rhode Island and lived in Rhode Island, was deported over the weekend.
Suri is accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media” and is determined to be deported by the Secretary of State’s office, Assistant Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said Wednesday night on Wednesday night, formerly known as Twitter. Surry’s case was first reported by Politico.
The documents of Suri’s lawyers said federal authorities provided no evidence that he had committed any crimes and that his detention violated his rights to freedom of speech and due process. According to the motion, Surry had no criminal record, he held a visa, authorized him to be a visiting scholar in the United States, and his wife was a U.S. citizen.
His attorney did not immediately respond to news seeking further comments on Thursday.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, the district of U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, who has included the county where Surry was detained, said in a statement Thursday that the academic’s detention was illegal, urging the court to consider the Surry case.
“The reason for the violation of the constitutional violation of Mr. Suri’s due process rights is another type of violation of the constitution: a blatant attack on the First Amendment,” Beyer said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Mr. Suri and his family are the latest victims of President Trump’s attack on freedom of speech.”
Surry’s lawyer said he was teaching in Georgetown and wanted to become a university professor. Georgetown web page identified Suri as a postdoctoral researcher at the Alwaleed bin talal Center, a Muslim Christian understanding at the university. The university said his areas of interest include religion, violence and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. The resume says he earned his PhD in India while studying efforts to introduce democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, and he has conducted extensive travel in conflict areas in several countries.
Surry, an Indian national, said in a statement Thursday, “was granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral study in peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“We don’t know that he engages in any illegal activities and have no reason to get his detention,” the school said. “We support the freedom and right of community members to openly inquire, deliberate and debate even if the basic ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable.
The U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement Detainers website lists Surry’s detention on the stage of Alexandria, Louisiana.
publishing – March 21, 2025 03:26 AM IST
