Lawyers lament treatment of detained Indian academic Badar Khan Suri

On 17 March, Badar Khan Suri, the Indian post-doctoral scholar at Georgetown University, was picked up by masked agents from the Department of Homeland Security outside his home in Virginia.

In the days that followed, Suri was moved to five locations across three states before he arrived at a detention centre in Texas, where, for the next two weeks, agents made him wear used underwear as well as a bright red, high-risk uniform allegedly reserved for people who pose security threats, and forced him to sleep on the floor while a television set blasted at full volume for at least 21 hours of the day. 

Suri, who was also observing the month of Ramadan at the time, was also denied water and food to break his fast.

These are some of the details of Suri's harrowing experience since he was taken more than 40 days ago by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, as described in a motion filed by his lawyers at a federal district court in Virginia on Thursday.

Suri was taken during a raft of arrests in March as the Trump administration began picking up pro-Palestine student protesters as well as others who appeared to express support for Palestinians during the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.  

Suri's lawyers called for the case against the 42-year-old scholar from Georgetown University to remain in Virginia, as well as for his immediate release. Suri who is currently at Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, is more than 1,000 miles away from his family, including his wife and three young children.

His lawyers said they were challenging Suri's arrest and detention under the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

The Trump administration has unlawfully arrested, detained, and targeted Dr Suri and others for exercising their First Amendment rights,” Mary Bauer, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said in a statement.

Bauer described the impetus to free Suri as part of the fight "to preserve the constitutional liberties that protect us all".

"We will continue to defend Dr Suri’s freedom to speak and to associate with his wife and family in the face of these unfounded attacks, and we are confident he will ultimately prevail," Bauer said.

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Why Badar Khan Suri was targeted

Suri's arrest in mid-March came weeks after several pro-Israel and Zionist news websites began vilifying both him and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, a Palestinian American, over their connection to Palestine.

Suri, who has been working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Washington, DC, was told that his student visa had been revoked and that he faced deportation.

Hours after Suri's case made the news, the pro-Israel conservative outfit Middle East Forum claimed credit for his arrest.

Saleh had been added to the pro-Israel blacklisting site, Canary Mission, in which her connection with Al Jazeera - as a former employee as well as the city of birth, Gaza City, were cited "as support for her alleged ties with Hamas".  

Saleh described claims that her husband was considered a threat to the US as "the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard".

"Badar is a man of peace who studies peace. He is a scholar who loves books and teaching,” Saleh said.

“I miss Badar. Our three children are missing their father. All we want, all we are praying for, is justice and freedom.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not reply to Middle East Eye's request for comment. In previous correspondence, however, they told MEE that Suri had been "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. The Secretary of State issued a determination on March 15, 2025 that Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable," the statement sent to MEE read.

The Department of Homeland Security did not supply any examples of Suri's alleged antisemitism.

Several other students and pro-Palestine advocates remain held by the US government with the threat of deportation, including Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk.

Neither has been charged with any crimes.

Due process?

Several other students have fled the country after receiving word that their visas had been revoked for their activism. The threat to those on visas and green cards has had a chilling effect on activism across US campuses.

Earlier this week, Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi was released from detention in Vermont after a judge ruled he should be free on bail, challenging the Trump administration, though its unclear what these developments will mean for the other activists still being held.

Suri's arrest has prompted outrage amongst his colleagues at Georgetown, including Nader Hashemi, director of the Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and an associate professor of Middle East and Islamic Politics at Georgetown University, who was the first person to see Suri in prison.

"Badar is not an organizer, nor was he politically active. He didn’t attend any of the Gaza encampment protests. On Georgetown’s campus, he has kept a low profile, focusing on his teaching, his research and raising his young family. Our center has co-sponsored a lecture series on Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023. I have no recollection of seeing Badar at any of these events," Hashemi wrote.

According to lawyers, the US government was using a rarely used provision in the 1952 Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA) that allows the secretary of state authority to deport people when there are “reasonable grounds” to believe their presence harms US foreign policy.

Nermeen Arastu, an associate professor at Cuny School of Law, said the Trump administration's actions against Suri were "a clear attempt to sidestep due process and evade accountability".

“This moment demands that all who care about the rule of law and the integrity of our courts stand up to defend due process and free speech - rights Dr. Suri continues to fight for after nearly 40 days separated from his wife and young children," Arastu said.

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