US Court Blocks Deportation of Indian Researcher Badar Khan Suri

New Delhi, March 21: A US court has stopped the deportation of Badar Khan Suri, an Indian doing research at Georgetown University who was detained earlier this week by immigration authorities. The US court ruling prevents his removal from the country until further notice amid allegations from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that he has ties to Hamas, a claim strongly denied by his lawyer and employer, as reported by BBC.

Suri, an Indian national and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, Washington DC, was arrested outside his Virginia home on Monday night by immigration agents, according to legal filings seen by CBS News and as reported by BBC. He was informed that his visa had been revoked and that he faced imminent expulsion.

Suri is accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda” and maintaining “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist.” However, his attorney asserts that he was targeted due to his wife's Palestinian identity and her constitutionally protected speech. In an order issued Thursday, Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ruled that Mr. Suri “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order.”

In a sworn statement, Mr. Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, described the arrest as a devastating ordeal for their family. “Our children are in desperate need of their father and miss him dearly,” she pleaded. “As a mother of three, I desperately need his support.” BBC reported.

Ms. Saleh’s father, a former adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, has been cited in reports by The Washington Post and The New York Times as a possible link to the allegations against Mr. Suri. However, Saleh maintains that her father left the Gaza government in 2010 and later founded the House of Wisdom, an institute promoting peace and conflict resolution.

Suri’s case is the latest in a string of detentions and deportations of foreign scholars and students accused of supporting or sympathising with proscribed groups. Last week, Ranjani Srinivasan, another Indian Columbia student, opted for self-deportation after her visa was revoked in early March. Her lawyers argue that her only involvement was attending protests and sharing social media posts related to Gaza.