Judge bars deportation of pro-Palestinian Georgetown University student
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Dr Badar Khan Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University (pictured).
PHOTO: SHURAN HUANG/NYTIMES
Follow topic:
WASHINGTON - A federal judge ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration not to deport Dr Badar Khan Suri, an Indian man studying at Washington’s Georgetown University whose lawyer has said the United States was seeking to remove him after it accused him of harming US foreign policy.
The order is to remain in effect until lifted by the court, according to the three-paragraph order by US District Judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia.
The Department of Homeland Security has accused Dr Suri of ties to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and said he had spread Hamas propaganda and anti-Semitism on social media.
On March 15, Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined Dr Suri could be deported for those activities, according to DHS.
Dr Suri is living in the US on a student visa and is married to an American citizen and has been detained in Alexandria, Louisiana, according to his lawyer.
He is awaiting a court date in immigration court, his lawyer said.
Federal agents arrested him outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on the night of March 17.
The lawyer welcomed March 20’s ruling and called it “the first bit of due process Dr Khan Suri has received since he was snatched from his family Monday night.”
The American Civil Liberties Union also defended Dr Suri and said he was “transferred to multiple immigration detention centres” before being taken to Alexandria, Louisiana.
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the March 20 court order.
The case comes as Mr Trump seeks to deport foreigners who took part in pro-Palestinian protests against US ally Israel’s war in Gaza following an October 2023 Hamas attack.
Mr Trump’s measures have sparked outcry from civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups, who accuse his administration of unfairly targeting political critics by invoking rarely used laws.
Dr Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Centre for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is part of the university’s School of Foreign Service.
Dr Suri’s wife, Ms Mapheze Saleh, is a US citizen, said his lawyer.
Ms Saleh is from Gaza, according to the Georgetown University website, which said she has written for Al Jazeera and Palestinian media outlets and worked with the foreign ministry in Gaza.
She has not been arrested, the lawyer added.
The lawyer had said on March 19 Dr Suri was being targeted for his wife’s Palestinian heritage and for his own pro-Palestinian views.
Some media outlets, including the Washington Post, reported that Mr Ahmed Yousef, the father of Dr Suri’s wife, was a former political adviser to Hamas.
Mr Yousef had also written for some Western publications like The Guardian.
Earlier in March, the Trump administration arrested and sought to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests. Khalil was moved to Louisiana and is challenging his detention
Mr Trump, without evidence, has accused Mr Khalil of supporting Hamas.
Mr Khalil’s legal team says he has no links to the militant group that the US designates as a “foreign terrorist organisation.”
Mr Trump has alleged pro-Palestinian protesters are anti-Semitic.
Pro-Palestinian advocates, including some Jewish groups, say that their criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza and their support for Palestinian rights are wrongly conflated with anti-Semitism by their critics. REUTERS
