Badar Khan Suri, an Indian student at Georgetown University, is currently facing deportation proceedings after being labeled a threat to U.S. foreign policy by the Trump administration.
According to his lawyer, Suri is being held in Alexandria, Louisiana, and is awaiting a court date in immigration court. He was arrested by federal agents outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on Monday night.
Who is Badar Khan Suri?
Suri has earned a PhD in peace and conflict studies from an Indian university and has been residing in the U.S. on a student visa. He is a post-doctoral fellow at Georgetown University’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is part of the School of Foreign Service. This semester, he has been teaching a course on “Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia.”
Suri is married to Mapheze Saleh, a U.S. citizen originally from Gaza, who has written for Al Jazeera and other Palestinian media outlets and worked with the Gaza Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
What are the charges against him?
Suri is accused by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of having connections to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and spreading its propaganda on social media. However, the DHS statement, shared by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, did not provide evidence for these allegations.
The statement claims Suri is linked to a suspected terrorist who is a senior advisor to Hamas. As a result, the U.S. government has determined that his activities make him deportable under U.S. immigration law.
