ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A Georgetown University researcher has been detained by immigration officials, prompting another high-profile legal fight over deportation proceedings against foreign-born visa holders who live in the U.S.
Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University, was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and determined to be deportable by the Secretary of State’s office, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter. The deportation effort comes amid legal fights over cases involving a Columbia University international affairs graduate student and a doctor from Lebanon.
Politico, which first reported on Suri’s case, said that masked agents arrested him outside his home in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night and told him his visa had been revoked, citing a legal filing by his lawyer.
His lawyer didn’t immediately respond to an messages seeking further comment Thursday. An online court docket shows that an urgent motion seeking to halt the deportation proceedings was filed Tuesday against the Trump administration.
A Georgetown University webpage identifies Suri as a postdoctoral fellow at Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the university. The university said his areas of interest include religion, violence and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. The bio said that he earned a doctorate in India while studying efforts to introduce democracy to Afghanistan and Iraq, and he has traveled extensively in conflict zones in several countries.
The university said in a statement Thursday that 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.”
“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention,” the school said. “We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”
The U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement detainee locator website lists Suri as being in the custody of immigration officials at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana.
Separately, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal U.S. resident with no criminal record, was detained earlier this month over his participation in pro-Palestinian demonstrations and is fighting deportation efforts in federal court. And Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported over the weekend despite having a U.S. visa.
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Finley reported from Norfolk, Va.