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Published : 20 Mar 2025, 10:23 AM
US President Donald Trump's administration has detained an Indian man studying at Washington's Georgetown University and is seeking to deport him after deeming him a harm to US foreign policy, the student's lawyer said on Wednesday.
The US Department of Homeland Security accused Badar Khan Suri of ties to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and said he had spread Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media, according to a statement it shared with Fox News.
The DHS statement to Fox News, which was reposted by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, did not cite evidence. It said Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Suri's activities "rendered him deportable."
Suri - who is living in the US on a student visa and is married to an American citizen - has been detained in Alexandria, Louisiana, and is awaiting a court date in immigration court, his lawyer said. Federal agents arrested him outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on Monday night.
The case comes as Trump seeks to deport foreigners who took part in pro-Palestinian protests against US ally Israel's war in Gaza following an October 2023 Hamas attack. Trump's measures have sparked outcry from civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups who accuse his administration of unfairly targeting political critics.
Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown's Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is part of the university's School of Foreign Service. His arrest was first reported by Politico.
"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," Suri's lawyer said in an email.
A Georgetown University spokesperson said the university had not received a reason for Suri's detention and it was not aware of Suri engaging in any illegal activity.
Suri's wife, Mapheze Saleh, is a US 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.
Suri himself has been teaching a class this semester on "Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia" and has a Ph.D in peace and conflict studies from a university in India, according to the Georgetown University website.
Earlier this month the Trump administration arrested and sought to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests. Khalil is challenging his detention in court.
Trump, without evidence, has accused Khalil of supporting Hamas. Khalil's legal team says he has no links to the militant group that the US designates as a "foreign terrorist organisation."
Trump has alleged pro-Palestinian protesters are antisemitic. Pro-Palestinian advocates, including some Jewish groups, say that their criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza and their support for Palestinian rights is wrongly conflated with antisemitism by their critics.
