The U.S. government detained an Indian citizen who was studying and teaching at Georgetown University, and said he had been deemed “deportable” for violating the terms of his student visa.
The academic, Badar Khan Suri, was detained at his home in Rosslyn, Va., on Monday night, according to his lawyer, Hassan Ahmad. Mr. Suri was “awaiting his court date in immigration court” in Alexandria, La., Mr. Ahmad said. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said Mr. Suri was “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” Ms. McLaughlin didn’t provide any evidence to support the claim.
Mr. Ahmad said that Mr. Suri denied all of the allegations made in Ms. McLaughlin’s statement. He believed that the accusations against Mr. Suri were “seemingly based on who his father-in-law was,” but that he was still researching the case. Mr. Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime, according to Mr. Ahmad. Politico first reported on the news of Mr. Suri’s detention.
Ms. McLaughlin said that Mr. Suri had “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio had deemed him “deportable.”
Ms. McLaughlin said Mr. Suri was detained under a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which the administration is using to try and deport Mahmoud Khalil, a recent Columbia University graduate and legal permanent resident who had a prominent role in the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia.
The measure says the Secretary of State can initiate deportation proceedings against any noncitizen whose presence in the United States he deems a threat to the country’s foreign policy interests. Mr. Trump had said earlier this month Mr. Khalil’s case was the first of “many to come.” Civil Rights groups have said such arrests against immigrants with some form of legal status are a clear violation of the First Amendment.
While both men were deemed to be deportable under the same statute, Mr. Suri was studying in the United States on a J-1 student visa while Mr. Khalil had a green card.
Georgetown University, where Mr. Suri was a postdoctoral fellow, said in a statement that it was not aware of Mr. Suri “engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention.”
“Seeing our government abduct and jail another innocent person is beyond contemptible,” Mr. Ahmad said.