US government cannot deport Georgetown scholar until court rules, judge
orders
[March 21, 2025]
By OLIVIA DIAZ and BEN FINLEY
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered immigration
officials not to deport a Georgetown scholar who was detained by the
Trump Administration and accused of spreading Hamas propaganda in the
latest battle over speech on U.S. college campuses.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia,
ordered that Indian national Badar Khan Suri “shall not be removed from
the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order.”
Suri’s attorney wrote in an earlier court filing that Suri was targeted
because of his social media posts and his wife’s “identity as a
Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.”
“Dr. Suri is an academic, not an activist," his attorney Hassan Ahmad
wrote in a court filing on Thursday. “But he spoke out on social media
about his views on the Israel-Gaza war. Even more so, his wife is an
outspoken critic of the Israeli government and the violence it has
perpetrated against Palestinians.”
Suri's attorney argued that federal authorities have provided no
evidence that he’s committed any crimes and that his detention violates
his free speech and due process rights. Suri, who has no criminal
record, holds a visa authorizing him to be in the U.S. as a visiting
scholar, and his wife is a U.S. citizen, according to the motion.
“The Trump Administration has openly expressed its intention to
weaponize immigration law to punish noncitizens whose views are deemed
critical of U.S. policy as it relates to Israel,” Suri's attorney wrote.
Suri was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting
antisemitism on social media” and determined to be deportable by the
Secretary of State’s office, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary
Tricia McLaughlin said late Wednesday on the social platform X. Suri’s
case was first reported by Politico.
Suri was arrested Monday night outside of his Virginia home, where he
lives with his wife and three children, who are between the ages of 5
and 9, according to the filing by his lawyer.
Masked agents “refused to tell him the basis for the arrest, handcuffed
him, and forced him into an unmarked black SUV,” Suri's lawyer wrote.
“Dr. Suri’s wife quickly arrived on the scene and begged for answers;
the agents only disclosed that they were from Homeland Security, the
government was revoking Dr. Suri’s visa, and he would be detained in
Chantilly.”
Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, “have long been doxxed and smeared,”
Suri's lawyer wrote, while she said in a separate statement to the court
that a website had "claimed falsely that my husband and I have ‘ties to
Hamas.’"
“I feel completely unsafe and can’t stop looking out the door, terrified
that someone else will come and take me and the children away as well,”
she said in her statement.
Saleh was born in Missouri but spent much of her life in Gaza after age
five, according to court filings. She and Suri married in New Delhi,
India, in 2013 and lived there before moving to the U.S.; he came in
2022 and she and their children joined him the following year.
Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at
Georgetown, told The Associated Press that Suri was intensely focused on
teaching and research that centered on religion and peace processes in
the Middle East and South Asia.
Suri felt strong solidarity and sympathy for Palestinians, but was not
outwardly political on campus, the professor said.
“We’ve organized dozens of events since Oc. 7th, when the Israel-Gaza
war began, and I don’t recall seeing him in any of those events,” said
Hashemi, who directs the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian
Understanding, where Suri is a post-doctoral fellow. “That’s not who he
was.”
[to top of second column]
|
In this July 10, 2013, file photo, prospective students tour
Georgetown University's campus in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn
Martin, File)
Before his arrest, Suri and his wife had been targets of right-wing
campus groups, in part because Saleh's father is Ahmed Yousef, a
former adviser to Hamas, Hashemi said.
Yousef confirmed to The New York Times that Suri is his son-in-law,
adding that Suri wasn't involved in any “political activism,”
including on behalf of Hamas.
Yousef, who has publicly criticized the Oct. 7 attack on Israel,
told the newspaper that he left his position in the Hamas-run
government in Gaza more than a decade ago and does not hold a senior
position with the militant group.
Georgetown's Alwaleed Center said in a statement that Suri's arrest
was part of a "campaign by the Trump Administration to destroy
higher education in the United States and punish their political
opponents.”
Suri was later taken to a detention facility in Louisiana, according
to a government website. His lawyers are seeking his immediate
release and to halt deportation proceedings through their habeas
motion filed Tuesday against the Trump administration.
Suri’s detention more than 1,000 miles (about 1,600 kilometers) away
from his family and attorney is “plainly intended as retaliation and
punishment for Mr. Suri’s protected speech,” his attorney added.
Separately, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a
legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was detained earlier
this month over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations
and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. And Dr. Rasha
Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and
lived in Rhode Island, was deported over the weekend despite having
a U.S. visa.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, whose district includes the county
where Suri was detained, said in a Thursday statement that the
scholar’s detention was illegal, urging the court to consider Suri’s
case.
“The ‘justification’ given for these violations of Mr. Suri’s right
to due process is another violation of the Constitution: a blatant
attack on the First Amendment,” Beyer said in a statement. “Mr. Suri
and his family are unfortunately the latest victim of President
Trump’s assault on the freedom of speech.”
Suri’s lawyers say he hopes to become a university professor. A
Georgetown webpage said that he earned a doctorate in India while
studying efforts to introduce democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, and
he has traveled extensively in conflict zones in several countries.
The university said in a statement Thursday that Suri was “duly
granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral
research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“We support 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,” the school said.
The U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement detainee locator
website lists Suri as being in the custody of immigration officials
at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana.
___
Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
