Georgetown professor Badar Khan Suri has been detained. Here’s what we know : NPR

A federal choose has blocked immigration officers from deporting a Georgetown College professor and postdoctoral scholar who was detained by the Trump administration earlier this week.

In a ruling Thursday, U.S. District Decide Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Va., mentioned Badar Khan Suri, an Indian nationwide, cannot be faraway from the U.S. “till the Courtroom points a opposite order.” Giles’ order stopped in need of releasing Suri again to his Rosslyn, Va., house the place his spouse and three younger youngsters are nonetheless dwelling. His legal professionals are nonetheless working to get him launched.

Suri is simply the newest scholar to be detained or deported by the Trump administration for his or her help for Palestinian rights or for criticizing Israel for the battle in Gaza. Similar to the high-profile arrest of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, Suri is being accused by Division of Homeland Safety officers of spreading Hamas propaganda.

Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), mentioned on X: “Suri was a international trade scholar at Georgetown College actively spreading Hamas propaganda and selling antisemitism on social media. Suri has shut connections to a identified or suspected terrorist, who’s a senior advisor to Hamas.”

His legal professionals deny this. Attorneys with the Virginia ACLU have mentioned in court docket filings that the federal government is retaliating towards Suri for his and his spouse’s help for Palestinians and for the couple’s ties to Gaza.

“Ripping somebody from their house and household, stripping them of their immigration standing, and detaining them solely primarily based on political viewpoint is a transparent try by President Trump to silence dissent,” ACLU of Virginia Senior Immigrants’ Rights Legal professional Sophia Gregg said in a statement on Suri’s case. “That’s patently unconstitutional.”

A consultant for DHS did not instantly reply to a request for remark.

This is the newest on Suri’s case.

Who’s Badar Khan Suri?

On the time of his arrest on Monday, Suri was instructing a course and attending Georgetown as a postdoctoral fellow on the college’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Middle for Muslim-Christian Understanding on the Edmund A. Walsh College of Overseas Service, according to his bio on the varsity’s web site.

He is within the U.S. underneath a J-1 visa, which according to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, is for individuals who participate in accredited applications of instructing, finding out, coaching and analysis. In 2020, Suri accomplished his Ph.D. in Peace & Battle Research from the Nelson Mandela Middle for Peace and Battle Decision at Jamia Millia Islamia, a public analysis college in New Delhi.

In an announcement calling for Suri’s launch, Georgetown’s Alwaleed Middle had sturdy phrases for the Trump administration.

“[Suri] has dedicated no crime. Like Mahmoud Khalil earlier than him, he was arrested within the context of a marketing campaign by the Trump Administration to destroy greater training in the US and punish their political opponents,” the middle mentioned.

Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s College of Overseas Service, is presently being held in an immigration detention middle in Louisiana, in accordance with his legal professionals.

Andrew C. Condon/Alwaleed Bin Talal Middle for Muslim-Christian Understanding

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Andrew C. Condon/Alwaleed Bin Talal Middle for Muslim-Christian Understanding

Suri’s spouse, Mapheze Saleh, is a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent and her father is Ahmed Yousef, a former adviser to Hamas, according to the Associated Press. Yousef told The New York Times that his son-in-law wasn’t concerned in any “political activism,” together with on behalf of Hamas. Yousef, for his half, has criticized the Oct. 7, 2023, assault on Israel and left his function within the Hamas-run authorities greater than a decade in the past, the Occasions mentioned.

Nader Hashemi, a professor of Center East and Islamic politics at Georgetown, additionally informed the Related Press that Suri was targeted on instructing and wasn’t concerned in political activism on the extremely prestigious faculty campus.

Suri’s attorneys say he and Saleh have confronted harassment and threats for talking out in help of Palestinians and have been featured on websites devoted to bullying and defaming lecturers and college students concerned within the pro-Palestine motion.

A photograph of Salah and details about her, together with her faculty and former employer is featured on an anonymously run web site, Suri’s attorneys write in court docket filings. They mentioned the positioning “maintains a blacklist of people perceived to help Palestinian rights and is notorious for bullying, slandering, and defaming lecturers and college students.”

What occurred?

Suri’s plight began March 17, when upon returning house following a Ramadan meal celebration, he was approached by masked federal brokers who recognized themselves as a part of the Division of Homeland Safety. They knowledgeable him that the federal government had revoked his visa.

“He’s right here legally. There was no ongoing problem together with his visa,” Eden B. Heilman, authorized director of the ACLU of Virginia, informed NPR.

The brokers rapidly took him into custody in entrance of his spouse, Heilman mentioned. However there was by no means any actual rationalization to Suri or Saleh about the place he was going, what was taking place or why, Heilman says.

Suri was by no means charged with any crime. However in just below 72 hours, he has been moved from one immigration middle to the following, finally touchdown in Louisiana the place he’s presently held. Each the pace and obscure nature of Suri’s arrest “is basically alarming,” Heilman mentioned.

What’s the authorities saying?

McLaughlin, the assistant secretary of DHS, mentioned Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the willpower to take away Suri on March 15, two days earlier than he was arrested. She said on X that Rubio decided that Suri’s “actions and presence in the US rendered him deportable underneath INA part 237(a)(4)(C)(i).”

The Trump administration is utilizing the identical “not often used” federal provision to aim to take away Suri as they did within the case of Khalil, the previous Columbia scholar, according to the professor’s lawyers.

This was carried out “… to retaliate towards and punish noncitizens like Mr. Suri solely for his or her household ties to those that might have both expressed criticism of U.S. international coverage because it pertains to Israel, or who’re perceived to carry such crucial views imputed to them resulting from familial relationship.”

Baher Azmy, authorized director of the Middle for Constitutional Rights and and certainly one of Khalil’s legal professionals, mentioned the usage of this coverage by the federal authorities is “largely unprecedented, save for ugly historic precedents, together with the Crimson Scare and McCarthyism,” the Columbia Spectator reported.

Suri’s attorneys are presently working to get him relocated nearer to his household, and authorized illustration, in Virginia, Heilman mentioned.