Badar Khan Suri, an Indian researcher at Georgetown University in the US, was arrested by immigration officers and is facing deportation.
His student visa was reportedly revoked, and he was taken by masked officers outside his home in Virginia on March 17.
Suri, who holds a PhD from Jamia Millia University in New Delhi, was a post-doctoral fellow at Georgetown, teaching a course on “Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia.”
Suri is married to Maphaz Ahmad Yousef, the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, a senior political advisor to Hamas, which has fueled speculation about the reasons behind his arrest. His lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, filed a habeas corpus appeal in a federal court in Virginia.
This case follows a pattern of other incidents where individuals connected to pro-Palestinian movements, especially on US campuses, have faced deportation or arrest. In the case of Ranjani Srinivasan, a PhD student at Columbia University, immigration officers arrived to inform her that her student visa had been canceled, leading her to flee to Canada. The US Department of Homeland Security accused her of supporting Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. However, in Suri's case, the Trump administration has not publicly commented on his arrest.
Suri's lawyer argues that his arrest is tied to his wife’s Palestinian heritage and their suspected opposition to US support for Israel. Suri has no criminal record, and it remains unclear whether he participated in protests. Georgetown University stated that Suri was working on a project examining causes of division in religiously diverse societies.
Suri’s arrest is part of a broader crackdown on individuals involved in pro-Palestinian activities in the US, with the Trump administration asserting that visas will be denied or revoked for those supporting terrorist groups.
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