Indian-origin researcher Badar Khan Suri, who was studying and teaching at Georgetown University on a student visa, has been detained by the federal immigration authorities. The news has gathered quite the attention online. The move comes as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to target student activists who the government claims are against US foreign policy, the Politico reported.
Suri’s lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, has filed a lawsuit for his immediate release which states that Suri is only being punished for his wife’s Palestinian heritage and that he has no criminal record, the report said.
Who is Badar Khan Suri’s wife?
The report further said that Suri’s lawyer in the petition has argued that Suri was not charged with any crime. It states that he is being targeted because of his wife Mapheze Saleh’s Palestinian heritage, and that she herself is a US citizen.
Saleh has worked for Al Jazeera in the past and it is alleged that she has links to Hamas.
The petition argues that the couple has been repeatedly targeted and attacked on anonymous far-right websites because they support Palestinian rights.
The Politico referred to a 2018 article in the Hindustan Times, which stated that Saleh’s father, Ahmed Yousef, worked as a “senior political adviser to the Hamas leadership.”
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin wrote on X that Suri was a foreign exchange student who has been “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” Laughlin further claimed that Suri had close ties to “a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
According to he Politico report, Suri’s lawyer has been unable to get in touch with him since Wednesday evening.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday. The article further added that Suri’s petition mentions that he was taken to a facility in Virginia and was expected to be moved to a detention center in Texas soon. However, on Wednesday evening, an online tool for tracking immigration detainees showed him at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “staging” center at the Alexandria, Louisiana, airport.