US judge: Donald Trump administration cannot deport Indian post-doctoral student
Washington DC: CNN reported that a federal court has barred Donald Trump’s government from attempting to deport a Georgetown University researcher working on a student visa accused of contradicting US foreign policy in the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Monday night, US federal immigration officials arrested the Indian native and postdoctoral associate Badar Khan Suri outside his Arlington Rosslyn area in Virginia; his lawyer filed a complaint seeking his immediate release.
Badar Khan Suri is not to be removed from the US until the court renders another decision, according to an order issued by the district judge.
The petition for Suri’s release claims that he was put under immigration law’s provisions, which the US government used to try to deport Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student and green card holder who organized pro-Palestinian demonstrations on university grounds.
Should the US Secretary of State find that non-citizens’ presence in the US compromises the nation’s foreign policy, the clause lets him remove them. Suri has not been charged with a crime and has no criminal record, according to his appeal, Politico stated.
Suri’s attorney said in his appeal that Suri is being penalized as his wife, a US citizen with Palestinian background, is suspected to be against US foreign policy toward Israel.
The petition said the couple’s support of Palestinian rights caused “long bezzled and smeared” on anonymously maintained far-right websites. The petition claims that Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, formerly worked for Al Jazeera and has allegedly “ties with Hamas.”
Tricia McLaughlin, a US Department of Homeland Security spokesman, stated that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided on Saturday that Suri’s visa should be revoked for foreign policy considerations.
McLaughlin said on X, “Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University aggressively sharing Hamas material and encouraging antisemitism on social media. Suri is closely related to a key adviser to Hamas who is either known or believed to be a terrorist. On March 15, 2025, the Secretary of State decided Suri’s acts and presence in the United States made him deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C).
Suri’s detention marks the most recent in a series of immigration-related arrests said to be just starting to surge under US President Donald Trump’s direction. Trump claims that these arrests were for “terrorist sympathizers,” or those who have “engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”
