Washington — A researcher from Georgetown University was apprehended by immigration officials earlier this week amidst the Trump administration’s intensified crackdown on activists within college environments. Court documents and the Department of Homeland Security indicate that he is claimed to have “close connections” to a Hamas official.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national, served as a postdoctoral associate, studying and teaching at Georgetown on a student visa. Following his arrest, attorneys for Suri lodged a writ of habeas corpus along with a related complaint contesting his detention in federal court in Virginia on Tuesday, just a day after his apprehension. CBS News secured the documents on Thursday.
The complaint detailed that Suri was surrounded and taken into custody by masked DHS agents while returning to his residence in Rosslyn, Virginia, where he lives with his wife Mapheze Saleh and their three children, after breaking his Ramadan fast on March 17.
“The agents introduced themselves as members of the Department of Homeland Security and informed him that his visa had been revoked,” stated the complaint, noting that “the agents wore face coverings, limiting Ms. Saleh to seeing only their eyes.”
Approximately two hours post-arrest, Suri contacted his wife to inform her that he was being sent to a detention facility in Farmville, Virginia, according to his attorneys. They expressed concerns that he might be relocated to a detention center in Los Fresnos, Texas, close to the U.S.-Mexico border. On Wednesday, ICE’s online inmate locator indicated that Suri was being held at a detention facility in Louisiana; however, a search for his name on Thursday revealed no results.
Suri’s legal representatives argued that his “unjustified detention” infringes upon his due process rights. They contended that the Trump administration’s actions against noncitizens based on protected speech, specifically regarding his and his wife’s views on Israel and Gaza, are “arbitrary and capricious” and represent viewpoint discrimination. They further noted that he possesses no criminal record and has not been charged with any crime.
The lawsuit claimed the couple has been “long targeted and defamed” online by an “anonymously-operated blacklisting site” called The Canary Mission. This site purports that Saleh, who Suri’s lawyers asserted is a U.S. citizen, “has worked for Hamas, expressed support for Hamas terrorism, and called for Israel’s destruction,” as described in a profile about her on the site. The Canary Mission is reported to maintain a blacklist of individuals it believes advocate for Palestinian rights and has a notorious reputation for intimidating, slandering, and defaming academics and students. The complaint also accuses the couple of being “smeared” by additional websites.
A spokesperson for Georgetown University mentioned that Suri received his visa to “continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“We are unaware of him engaging in any unlawful activity, and we have not been provided with a reason for his detention,” the university spokesperson informed CBS News. “We advocate for our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation, and debate, even when the underlying ideas may be challenging, controversial, or objectionable. We anticipate that the legal system will assess this case justly.”
In its statement, a DHS spokesperson told CBS News that Suri was a “foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively disseminating Hamas propaganda and endorsing antisemitism on social media.”
The DHS spokesperson further claimed that Suri had “close ties to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
On March 15, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that “Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable” under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the spokesperson added.
This detention follows ICE agents’ controversial March 8 arrest in New York City of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and green card holder involved in the 2024 pro-Palestinian campus protests.
The 30-year-old Khalil, an Algerian national born in Syria to Palestinian parents, is also currently being held at a Louisiana detention facility. Khalil was arrested in front of his wife, who was eight months pregnant at the time.
In a statement to CBS News last week, DHS alleged that Khalil’s arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism,” asserting the former student “led activities aligned with Hamas,” but did not provide evidence for this claim or specify any alleged criminal charges against him.
A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Khalil’s case could be heard in New Jersey instead of New York or Louisiana. Khalil was briefly held at a detention facility in New Jersey before being transferred to Louisiana.
