Student Detained in US Cannot Be Deported Until Court Orders

A federal judge today ordered immigration officials not to deport a Georgetown student in government detention until the court has had a chance to rule.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of Alexandria, Virginia, ordered that Badar Khan Suri “not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order.”

Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University and a citizen of India, was detained Monday night outside his Virginia home by agents who identified themselves as Department of Homeland Security agents and told him his visa had been revoked, according to a court filing filed by Suri’s attorney.

Hassan Ahmad, Suri’s attorney, wrote in a court filing that his client was targeted because of “his wife’s identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.”

Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, “have long been the targets of doxxing and defamation,” the court filing states.

Doxxing is defined as the online practice of searching for and transmitting private information about an individual or organization.

“The Trump administration has openly expressed its intention to weaponize immigration law to punish non-citizens whose views are deemed critical of U.S. policy toward Israel,” Hassan Ahmad wrote.

Suri has been charged with “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media” and has been deemed deportable by the secretary of state’s office, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said Wednesday on X.

Critics of the suspect posted Saleh’s photo online, along with information including his former employment with Al Jazeera and his birthplace in Gaza City, “to support his alleged ties to Hamas.”

Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown, told The Associated Press that Suri was intensely focused on his research and teaching. He felt strong solidarity and sympathy for the Palestinians but was not overtly political on campus.

“We’ve organized dozens of events since October 7. We’ve organized dozens of events since October 7, when the war between Israel and Gaza began, and I don’t remember seeing him at any of them,” said Hashemi, who directs the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, where Suri is a postdoctoral fellow. “He wasn’t like that.”

Before his arrest, Suri and his wife had been targeted by right-wing groups on campus, in part because Saleh’s father is Ahmed Yousef, a former Hamas adviser, Hashemi said.

The incident also comes as Donald Trump has launched a series of targeted attacks on the scientific community, from savage budget cuts to censorship of certain subjects in funded research.

In addition to this case, there is that of a French scientist, Philippe Baptiste, who was denied entry to the United States after US authorities found messages on his mobile phone that expressed a critical view of Donald Trump's government, Paris confirmed on Wednesday.

There is also the case of a doctor and university professor recently deported from the United States to Lebanon, who was detained after immigration authorities found "photos and videos favourable" to the leaders of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah on her mobile phone, which justified her expulsion from the country.

Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student who led protests against the war in the Gaza Strip, also had his permanent residence permit in the United States revoked and deportation proceedings initiated.