US judge blocks deportation of Indian researcher Badar Khan Suri held over ‘Hamas Ties’
The directive is to continue in force until it is rescinded by the court, states the three-paragraph directive issued by US District Judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia.
An American judge prevented the deportation of Indian scholar Badar Khan Suri on Thursday at a leading US university after the Trump administration arrested him for suspected ties to Palestinian militant group Hamas. The temporary restraining order requesting Suri not be deported from the United States was made by US District Judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia.
It will continue to hold good until the next court hearing, news agency Reuters reported.
It was also charged by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University‘s highly regarded Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, is currently being held in Louisiana, also propagated Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media, which endangered American foreign policy.
Legal struggle and response of rights organizations
Suri’s lawyer welcomed the ruling, calling it “the first bit of due process Dr. Khan Suri has received since he was snatched from his family Monday night,” Reuters reported. The lawyer had previously stated that Suri was being targeted for his pro-Palestinian views and his wife’s Palestinian heritage.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also defended Suri as saying he was “transferred to several immigration detention facilities” before being taken to Alexandria, Louisiana.
Who Is Badar Khan Suri?
Born in India, Suri obtained his PhD in Peace and Conflict Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia‘s Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution in New Delhi in 2020. His PhD thesis, Transitional Democracy, Divided Societies and Prospects for Peace: A Study of State Building in Afghanistan and Iraq, studied the challenges faced in building democracy in war–torn countries.
Suri has done extensive field work in conflict areas such as Pakistan, Balochistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, and Palestine. His research is on religion, violence, peace, and ethnic conflicts, especially the Middle East and South Asia. His ongoing project examines obstacles to cooperation in religiously diverse societies and seeks to offer solutions to these obstacles.
Suri is in America on a student visa and married to an American-born citizen from Gaza. His wife, Mapheze Saleh, is a graduate of Islamic University of Gaza with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and holds a master‘s degree from Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.
Part of broader crackdown
The case is part of the Trump administration‘s wider crackdown on foreigners associated with pro-Palestinian demonstrations against Israel‘s war in Gaza. Immigrant and civil rights groups have accused the administration of abusing infrequently used laws to silence political dissent.
The US government claims Suri has ties to Hamas, a Palestinian organization that the US and some other Western nations have labeled as a terrorist group, in accordance with a Politico report based on court documents.
This comes after the Trump administration recently revoked the student visa of Columbia University student Ranjani Srinivasan. Afraid of being arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Srinivasan opted to “self-deport“ on March 11.
Earlier this month, US officials also detained Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil for attending pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Khalil, who was relocated to Louisiana, is fighting his detention in court.
