Indian researcher Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, has been arrested by U.S. immigration officers and is now facing deportation, according to his lawyer. Suri was taken into custody outside his home in Virginia on Monday by masked officers, who informed him that his student visa had been revoked, as reported by Politico.
Suri, who holds a PhD from Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, was teaching a course on “Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia” at Georgetown University. He is married to a U.S. citizen, Maphaz Ahmad Yousef, the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, who has been described as a senior political advisor to the Hamas leadership, according to the Hindustan Times.
His lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, stated that a habeas corpus appeal has been filed in a federal court in Virginia to challenge the arrest and possible deportation. However, the Trump administration has not yet commented on Suri’s case, despite previous high-profile deportation actions against individuals allegedly involved in pro-Palestinian campus protests.
Suri is the second Indian researcher to face deportation over alleged involvement in pro-Palestinian activism on U.S. campuses. Earlier this month, Ranjani Srinivasan, a PhD student at Columbia University, fled to Canada after being informed by U.S. immigration officials that her student visa had been cancelled due to alleged connections to Hamas.
While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has accused some students of supporting Hamas, a designated terrorist organization in the U.S., no official charges have been filed against Suri. His arrest has sparked concerns among civil rights groups, with critics arguing that the Trump administration is using immigration laws to target academic freedom and political dissent.
