Washington — A federal judge on Thursday blocked the government from deporting a Georgetown University researcher who was detained by immigration authorities earlier this week as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on activists across college campuses.
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national, is a postdoctoral associate who was studying and teaching at Georgetown on a student visa. The government cited his alleged “close connections” to a Hamas official as justification for revoking the visa, saying he was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda.”
Attorneys for Suri filed a writ of habeas corpus and accompanying complaint challenging his detention in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday, one day after his arrest. CBS News obtained the documents on Thursday.
In an order later in the day, Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles said Suri “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order.”
The complaint filed by Suri’s attorneys said he was surrounded and detained by masked DHS agents as he was returning to his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, where he lives with his wife Mapheze Saleh and their three children, after breaking his fast for Ramadan on March 17.
“The agents identified themselves as members of the Department of Homeland Security and stated that the government had revoked his visa,” the complaint said, adding that “the agents had face coverings and Ms. Saleh could only see their eyes.”
Roughly two hours after his arrest, Suri called his wife to let her know that he was being sent to a detention center in Farmville, Virginia, his attorneys said. They added that they believe he is likely to be moved to a detention facility in Los Fresnos, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border. As of Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator showed Suri was being held at a detention facility in Louisiana. His lawyers have filed a motion seeking his return to Virginia.
Suri’s attorneys said his “unjustified detention” violated his due process rights. They argued that the Trump administration’s targeting of noncitizens for removal based on protected speech, namely his and his wife’s views of Israel and Gaza, is “arbitrary and capricious” and constitutes viewpoint discrimination. They said that he has no criminal record and has not been charged with any crime.
The complaint alleged that the couple had “long been doxxed and smeared” online by an “anonymously-run blacklisting site” known as The Canary Mission. The site alleges that Saleh, who Suri’s attorneys said is a U.S. citizen, “has worked for Hamas, expressed support for Hamas terrorism and called for Israel’s destruction,” according to a profile dedicated to her on the site. The Canary Mission, the complaint said, runs a blacklist of individuals who its creators believe support Palestinian rights and “is infamous for bullying, slandering, and defaming academics and students.” The complaint also alleges that the couple were “smeared” by other websites.
A Georgetown University spokesperson said Suri obtained his visa in order “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 school spokesperson told CBS News. “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.”
In its own statement, a spokesperson for DHS told CBS News that Suri was a “foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”
The DHS spokesperson claimed that Suri had “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior adviser to Hamas.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a determination on March 15 that “Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable” under the Immigration and Nationality Act, the spokesperson added.
The detention follows ICE agents’ controversial March 8 arrest in New York City of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and green card holder who was involved in the 2024 pro-Palestinian campus protests.
The 30-year-old Khalil, an Algerian national who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents, is also being held in 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 Khalil’s arrest was “in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism,” alleging the former student “led activities aligned to Hamas,” but without providing evidence of the claim or detailing any alleged criminal charges against him.
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Khalil’s case can be heard in New Jersey, rather than New York or Louisiana. Khalil was briefly held at a detention facility in New Jersey before being moved to Louisiana.
