Badar Khan Suri, Georgetown University researcher detained by ICE over allegations of ‘Hamas’ propaganda, raising questions of academic freedom and free speech and wrong think.
And once again … A researcher at Georgetown University was detained by federal immigration authorities on Monday over allegations he was spreading Hamas propaganda through social media along with having supposed connections to known terrorists.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national in the US on a student visa, was arrested at his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, by masked agents from the Department of Homeland Security, his lawyer alleges in a lawsuit, CBS News reported.
Suri, who both teaches and studies at the university as a postdoctoral associate, was told by the DHS agents that his student visa had been revoked, the report stated.
GEORGETOWN GRAD STUDENT HELD BY IMMIGRATION AUTHORITIES:
Statement from Dr. Badar Khan Suri’s attorney:
“It’s still really early. At this point we don’t know much more than what was piled in the habeas. He’s in Alexandria, Louisiana awaiting his court date in immigration court.… pic.twitter.com/r3wZ1ECm8C— Allison Papson (@AllisonPapson) March 20, 2025
Academic legally in the U.S with no filed criminal charges
The researcher’s arrest comes amid a broader crackdown by the administration of President Donald Trump on student organizers with links to pro-Palestinian activism; Khan Suri’s wife, a U.S. citizen and Georgetown graduate student, is Palestinian.
A petition filed by a lawyer on behalf of Suri in federal court, alleges immigration agents detaining the researcher because of connections between his wife and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and the couple’s alleged opposition to U.S. foreign policy toward Israel, Politico reported in an article titled, ‘Trump is seeking to deport another academic who is legally in the country, lawsuit says.’
Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime, his petition says. His detention and petition have not been previously reported.
The petition says the couple has ‘long been doxxed and smeared’ on anonymously run, far-right websites due to their support for Palestinian rights. The petition also says that Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, has been alleged to have ‘ties with Hamas’ and once worked for Al Jazeera.
Notes Israel in the USA: ‘Her student biography, since deleted from the university’s website, states that she “has worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza”: also known as Hamas. On social media, Mapheze has expressed support for October 7 as an act of resistance and glorified terrorists responsible for the deaths of thousands as martyrs.’
Latest ouster of academic legally in the U.S over ‘offensive’ views and associations
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a determination on Saturday that Suri’s visa should be canceled for foreign policy reasons.
‘Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,’ McLaughlin wrote on X. ‘Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.’
The academic’s arrest comes amid the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil (Palestinian activist issued with a green card) for his participation in anti war protests involving Gaza and Israel, followed by the deportation last week of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Brown University professor and kidney transplant specialist from the U.S after they found ‘sympathetic photos and videos’ of prominent Hezbollah figures in a deleted items folder on her cell phone upon her arrival at Boston’s Logan International Airport after she was given green light clearance to enter the United States, two days earlier.
Suri’s detention is the latest in a string of immigration-related arrests that Trump says are just beginning to ramp up. The arrests, Trump says, target ‘terrorist sympathizers’ or people who have allegedly ‘engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.’ Nevertheless advocates for these detainees say Trump is violating their First Amendment rights by retaliating against noncitizens — including people in the country legally — based on their political views and free speech.
As of Wednesday evening, no judge had been assigned to Suri’s case, and the court had not taken any action on it, Politico reported.
Welcome to a brave new world…
