Georgetown University Researcher Detained and Visa Revoked for Deportation

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Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri was detained 17 March 2025 by federal immigration officials to revoke his visa and deport him based on allegations that his wife, a USA citizen, had connections with Hamas.

Outside his home in Virginia, Suri was surrounded by masked Homeland Security agents, arrested, and taken away in an unmarked SUV. 

Later Tricia McLaughlin, Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs, wrote: “Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media. Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.” DHS did not provide any evidence to support this claim. Suri was not charged with any crime.

Suri is a researcher in the Georgetown School of Foreign Service’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU). He is an Indian citizen legally in the United States on a J-1 visa for researchers.

Within a couple of days after he was detained, he was transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana where the federal Appeals Court is more likely to rule on appeals the way the government wants.

His wife Mapheze Saleh is a first-year graduate student at the School of Foreign Service’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. She was born in Gaza and is a citizen of the USA. Her father Ahmed Yousef was an official in Gaza’s Hamas-run government. He left that role over ten years ago and has publicly criticized Hamas for its 7 October 2023 terrorist attacks in Israel.

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