Judge Blocks Deportation of Georgetown Researcher Unless and Until Court Says Otherwise

Federal District Court Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles issued a ruling that Georgetown researcher Badar Khan Suri must not be deported unless and until a court rules otherwise.

Suri is a citizen of India who has been studying and working as a postdoctoral fellow on a student visa at Georgetown University.

After his arrest, Suri was first taken to a Virginia detention center in Virginia. Immigration and Customs Enforcement transferred him to a detention facility in Louisiana which is often the point from which a person is deported, and which is in an area where the federal Court of Appeals tends to be more likely to rule in line with Donald Trump’s regime.

His attorney’s writ of habeas corpus was filed Tuesday. On Thursday his attorney filed a memorandum and the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed an emergency motion on behalf of Suri. These resulted in the judge’s ruling.

The government claims “Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas” and accuses him of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”

Suri’s wife Mapheze Saleh is a USA citizen of Palestinian heritage. In the past she worked for Al Jazeera. Her father Ahmed Yousef had a role in Gaza’s government, but left it and is now a professor. He has been publicly critical of Hamas’ attack on Israel on 7 October 2023.

Saleh told the court she “posts on a daily basis” about what she saw in Gaza “including posts that expressed sorrow for the deaths of Gazan people.”

She also said “certain websites had targeted me personally” due to her father’s earlier job with the Gazan government. She said one website “falsely that my husband and I have ‘ties to Hamas’.”

Click here for more details.