Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said Badar Khan Suri was detained by ICE for having ties to a ‘known or suspected terrorist’ and ‘spreading Hamas propaganda.’
Mahmoud Khalil arrest and detention questioned
Mahmoud Khalil is fighting deportation while being held in a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Louisiana.
Georgetown University is searching for clear answers after one of the school’s researchers was detained by President Donald Trump’s administration with plans to deport him after considering him a danger to US foreign policy, the student’s lawyer said on Wednesday.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national with a valid visa, is being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” Tricia McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, said in an X post on Wednesday.
“Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,” McLaughlin said. “The Secretary of State issued a determination on March 15, 2025 that Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(i).”
In a statement to USA TODAY, a Georgetown University spokesperson said Khan Suri entered the U.S. 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 statement continued. “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.”
Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, is a U.S. citizen, said his lawyer. Saleh is from Gaza, according to the Georgetown University website, which said she has written for Al Jazeera and Palestinian media outlets and worked with the foreign ministry in Gaza. Saleh has not been arrested, the lawyer added.
USA TODAY contacted ICE and Homeland Security officials on Thursday but has not received a response.
Petition filed calling for Badar Khan Suri’s immediate release
A petition for Khan Suri’s release was filed on Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The president and members of his cabinet: U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and various ICE officials are named as respondents.
Masked Department of Homeland Security agents arrested Khan Suri outside his home in Arlington, Virginia on Monday night, according to the petition obtained by Politico. While identifying themselves, the agents told the postdoctoral fellow that the government had revoked his visa, the court document says, per the outlet.
According to the petition, to deport Khan Suri, the government is using the same provision of immigration law it invoked to try to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and green card holder who led pro-Palestinian protests on campus, Politico reported. This provision gives the secretary of State the authority to deport noncitizens if they deem that their presence in the U.S. would threaten foreign policy.
“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,” Khan Suri’s attorney, Hassan Ahmad, told Reuters.
USA TODAY contacted Hassan Ahmad on Thursday but has not received a response.
Hassan Ahmad: Badar Khan Suri being punished due to wife being Palestinian
Hassan Ahmad said in the petition that his client is being punished due to his wife, a U.S. Citizen, being of Palestinian descent, Politico reported. The government believes Khan Suri and his wife, who they say also has “ties with Hamas,” are against U.S. foreign policy toward Israel, the petition reads, per the outlet.
“We’re trying to speak with him. That hasn’t happened yet,” Ahmad said on Wednesday, Politico reported. “This is just another example of our government abducting people the same way they abducted Khalil.”
Khan Suri’s situation comes as Trump and his administration continue to carry out their mass deportation campaign, albeit receiving some pushback from numerous judges.
“We’re not stopping,” Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, told Fox News in an interview this week. “I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re coming.”