A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration cannot deport a Georgetown University scholar who is living in the country legally but was seized by federal agents as the administration targets "terrorist sympathizers."
Masked agents arrested Badar Khan Suri outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on Monday night. Khan Suri is an Indian national and postdoctoral fellow who was studying and teaching on a student visa. He was informed by agents with the Department of Homeland Security that his visa was being revoked.
Tricia McLaughlin said in a Wednesday post on X that Khan Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media. Khan Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
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But on Thursday afternoon, U.S District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles said the administration cannot deport him unless she rules otherwise while she reviews Khan Suri’s petition challenging his detention.
Khan Suri is married with children, according to the report.
Suri’s petition for release said he was placed in deportation proceedings under a rarely used immigration law enforcement mechanism that allows the head of the State Department to deport noncitizens if they're deemed a threat to U.S. foreign policy.
Suri’s lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, has said his client was targeted because his wife is of Palestinian heritage and is not a U.S. citizen. Authorities believe he and his wife oppose the United States' support of Israel, said Ahmad.
“We’re trying to speak with him. That hasn’t happened yet,” Ahmad told Politico on Wednesday. “This is just another example of our government abducting people the same way they abducted Khalil.”
Trump has explicitly said his administration is targeting people he refers to as "terrorist sympathizers." In multiple public statements, including on his social media platform, Trump vowed to "find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again."
His rhetoric has been tied to recent actions, including the arrest of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, a legal permanent U.S. resident who played a major role in protests that rocked Columbia University last year.
