A US court has blocked the deportation of Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher after he was detained on accusations of “spreading Hamas propaganda,” which his lawyer and employer deny.
A US court has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Badar Khan Suri, an Indian researcher at Georgetown University, who was detained by immigration officials earlier this week, the Reuters news agency reported on Friday.
Suri, a postdoctoral fellow on a student visa, was accused by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of “spreading Hamas propaganda” and having “ties to a known or suspected terrorist.”
However, both his lawyer and employer have rejected these claims. Suri’s lawyer argued that the detention was linked to his wife’s Palestinian identity and her constitutionally protected right to free speech.
https://twitter.com/RepDonBeyer/status/1902779545327149547
In a ruling on Thursday, Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ordered that Suri cannot be removed from the US unless the court issues a different decision.
According to the BBC, Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, shared in a statement that the arrest had disrupted their family life. She appealed to the court, stressing that their children deeply miss their father and that she needs his support in caring for their family.
Suri’s detention comes amid a broader pattern of the arrest or deportation of foreign students and academics, including Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate.
The Allegations
On Monday night, masked federal immigration agents detained Suri outside his home in Virginia and told him his visa had been revoked.
The court papers, demanding Suri’s immediate release, indicated that he “was put in deportation proceedings under the same rarely used provision of immigration law that the government has invoked to try to deport Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student and green card holder who led pro-Palestinian protests on campus,” Politico reported.
The provision, according to the news website, gives the Secretary of State “the power to deport noncitizens if the secretary determines that their continued presence in the U.S. would threaten foreign policy.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, alleged on X that Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”
She further alleged that Suri had “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
“The Secretary of State issued a determination on March 15, 2025, that Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(i),” McLaughlin added.
‘Doxxed and Smeared’
The postdoctoral fellow’s lawyer, Hassan Ahmed, has argued in court papers that Suri, who has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime, is being targeted because of the Palestinian heritage of his wife, who is a US citizen, “and because the government suspects that he and his wife oppose U.S. foreign policy toward Israel,” Politico reported.
The report also cites the petition as saying that the couple has ‘“long been doxxed and smeared’ on anonymously run, far-right websites due to their support for Palestinian rights.”
Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, has also been alleged to have ‘“ties with Hamas and once worked for Al Jazeera.”
Politico also cites a 2018 article about the couple in an Indian newspaper which said that Saleh’s father, Ahmed Yousef served as a “senior political adviser to the Hamas leadership.”
A Georgetown University spokesperson said in a statement cited by various news reports that “Dr. Khan Suri is an Indian national who was duly granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention,” the statement added.
It further stated that the university supported “our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”
His lawyer also said that he had been unable to contact Suri as of Wednesday evening.
“We’re trying to speak with him. That hasn’t happened yet,” Ahmad reportedly said, adding “This is just another example of our government abducting people the same way they abducted Khalil.”
At the same time, no judge had yet been assigned to Suri’s case.
(PC, Reuters, BCC)
Twitler is an embarassment, and a direct threat to our American identity. It can be said that he himself is a foreign agent because he accepted ” contributions ” from the ZioNazis: therefore, high treason. Therefore he’s not fit for office. Any POTUS who accepted bribes should have been impeached and removed from office. Let’s start with Dondolf.
This article suggests that Suri has the attention of both the “far right” and the “far left”. Doxxed and smeared by far right websites because of their support for Palestinian rights-but his wife is Palestinian and he is “pro-Hamas”? Politico is trash and I somehow missed their argument on Suri’s father-in-law being a political advisor to Hamas leadership? Conveniently used and then ignored by the democrat party and their propaganda mouthpieces, like Politico. Raided and removed by the Republican Party and “smeared and doxxed” by the far right, but the far right supports Palestine and in that horseshoe paradigm- hates Jews as much as Rashida Talib, if I am to believe Politico.