After being identified for removal, Badar Khan Suri was held by the US Department of Homeland Security.
After being arrested as part of US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, an Indian postdoctoral researcher at Georgetown University who has opposed Israel’s conflict in Gaza faces deportation.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced on Wednesday that Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, had been designated for deportation for “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism” on social media.
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On X, McLaughlin stated, “Suri has close ties to a known or suspected terrorist who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
On March 15, 2025, the Secretary of State declared that Suri was deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(i) due to his actions and presence in the country.
McLaughlin’s assertion of connections between Suri and Hamas, the organization in charge of Gaza, was unsupported by any proof.
The academic is receiving legal aid from Nermeen Arastu, an associate law professor at CUNY School of Law, who characterized Suri as a “loving husband and father of young children” who “cares deeply about human rights, dignity, peace, and safety for all people”.
According to Arastu, Suri was taken to an unidentified location by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents who had arrived at night and then taken to an immigration detention facility.
Every family’s worst dread is this. “And let’s be clear, President Trump wants to silence anyone he suspects of having a political opinion that differs from his own, which is why this happened to him,” Arastu told Al Jazeera.
Kidnappings by ICE are not new. ICE authorities arrest people without cause, frequently for no other reason than their political convictions, tearing up thousands of families every week. This is a component of the Trump administration’s broader trend of racially motivated attacks on immigrant populations.
According to ICE’s online detention locator, Suri is presently being held at an ICE detention facility at Louisiana’s Alexandria International Airport.
According to a court document, Suri’s attorney, Ahmad Hassan, petitioned the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Wednesday for the researcher’s release.
A request for response from Al Jazeera was not immediately answered by Hassan.
Mapheze Saleh, Suri’s wife, told Al Jazeera that she is a citizen of the United States.
She referred additional inquiries to Suri’s attorneys.
A Georgetown University representative told Al Jazeera that Suri had been given a student visa to conduct “doctoral research on peace-building in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
The spokeswoman stated, “We have not been given a reason for his detention, and we are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity.”
Despite the fact that the underlying concepts may be challenging, contentious, or offensive, we uphold the rights of our community members to free and open investigation, discussion, and debate. We anticipate that this case will be decided fairly by the legal system.
Using Suri’s name, image, and Georgetown University affiliation, an X account expressed support for the Palestinian cause and made several criticisms of Israel.
After the Palestinian-run Quds News Network published footage allegedly showing the remains of an Israeli missile marked “Made in India,” the account accused India in a June post of being “an enabler of genocide.”
From supporting the Palestinians to facilitating a genocide. The message read, “What a disgrace it is for Made in India to give Israel missiles so that Palestinian children can be slaughtered.”
Blood money’s values have changed. Disgrace.
The account claimed in a tweet from October 2023 that many Indians backed Israel out of “hatred of Muslims” rather than “love of Israel.”
That month, another post claimed that interpreting the October 7, 2023, strikes on Israel by Hamas as the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict disregarded 1948 history and denied Palestinians the “right to resist by all means which international laws [sic] give to Palestinians.”
Mahmoud Khalil, a student at Columbia University, was arrested by the DHS for his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations less than two weeks prior to Suri’s arrest.
A federal court decided on Wednesday that Khalil, a permanent resident of the United States, could dispute the Trump administration’s deportation order in court.
Judge Jesse Furman decided that Khalil’s claim that his dismissal would infringe upon his constitutionally guaranteed rights to free speech and due process called for “careful review.”
