Indian researcher Badar Khan Suri not to be deported from US, orders judge

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian researcher at America's Georgetown University, shall not be removed from the country “unless and until the court issues a contrary order”, a US judge ordered on Thursday.

The verdict came a day after Suri was arrested over alleged Hamas ties. Suri was reportedly being held at an immigration detention center in Louisiana.

The filing accused the US government of having detained Suri “based on his family connection and constitutionally protected free speech.”

Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of the Eastern District of Virginia Court ordered on Thursday evening that Suri “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the court issues a contrary order.”

Suri's lawyer earlier demanded his release and denounced the arrest as a "targeted, retaliatory detention" that was intended "to silence, or at the very least restrict and chill, his speech" as well as that of others who “express support for Palestinian rights.”

Badar Khan Suri, who is living in the US on a student visa, is married to an American citizen. He is a postdoctoral fellow at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington DC.

"Dr Khan Suri is an Indian national who was duly granted a visa to enter the United States to continue his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan," Georgetown University said in a statement.

“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention,” the university reacted.

Why was Badar Khan Suri arrested?

Suri was arrested Monday at his home in Arlington, Virginia, according to Politico.

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said on X that Suri was “a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media.”

McLaughlin accused him of having "close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas."

The State Department decided the researcher was subject to deportation under a provision of immigration law that allows for expulsion if the visa holder's presence in the United States is determined to threaten US foreign policy, she added.

Hamas is a US-designated terror organization.

"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 under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(i)," the Homeland Security department said, according to a statement it shared with Fox News.