A researcher studying at Georgetown University was detained by federal immigration authorities on Monday over allegations by the Trump administration that the foreign exchange student spread Hamas propaganda through social media, according to reports.
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 obtained by CBS News and Politico.
Suri, who both teaches and studies at the university as a postdoctoral associate and is married to a US citizen, was told by the DHS agents that his student visa had been revoked, the suit stated
The Trump administration alleged that Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” CBS reported.
A DHS spokesperson claimed the Georgetown student had “close connections” to a senior adviser to Hamas which Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined “rendered him deportable” under the Immigration and Nationality Act on March 15.
A lawyer for Suri filed a Writ of Habeas Corpus in the Eastern District of Virginia challenging the detention.
Georgetown University said it was unaware of any allegations of nefarious or illegal behavior on behalf of their post-grad.
“Dr. Khan Suri is an Indian national who was duly granted a visa to enter the United states to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan,” a Georgetown University spokesperson said in a statement to The Post.
“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention,” the statement read. “We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”
Suri has a Ph.D. in peace and conflict studies from a university in India and is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, according to the elite school’s website.
“If an accomplished scholar who focuses on conflict resolution is whom the government decides is bad for foreign policy, then perhaps the problem is with the government, not the scholar,” his lawyer said in an email to Reuters.
The Indian national’s wife is a US citizen originally from Gaza and still has close ties to Palestinian enclave, working with its foreign ministry and writing for Al Jazeera and other Palestinian outlets, according to Georgetown’s website. Suri’s lawyer argued that his client was being targeted over his wife’s heritage and their support of Palestinian rights, Politico reported.
Suri is currently being held at a facility near the Alexandria International Airport in Louisiana, according to ICE’s online database.
His arrest comes amid the Trump administration’s attempt to deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil for his participation in anti-Israel protests and a general crackdown on anti-Israel student protestors.
The White House has accused Khalil of distributing pro-Hamas flyers during a protest at Columbia last year.
A federal judge blocked Khalil’s deportation from the US, but the Trump administration is seemingly undeterred.
“I think we’ll certainly see some people who get deported on student visas if we determine that it’s not in the best interest of the United States to have them in our country,” Vice President JD Vance said earlier this week in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham.
Neither DHS, ICE, nor a lawyer for Suri responded to The Post’s request for comment.
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