Key points
- Suri is being targeted due to his Palestinian spouse: Lawyer
- US officials claim he has connections to Hamas
- Masked DHS agents took him into custody
ISLAMABAD: Indian academic Badar Khan Suri, a Green Card holder and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University is facing deportation after being detained by US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents at his home in Arlington, Virginia.
His lawyer claims that Suri is being targeted due to his Palestinian spouse, while officials assert that he has connections to Hamas according to Business Today.
Masked DHS agents reportedly informed Suri that his visa had been revoked before taking him into custody. Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant Secretary at DHS, said, “Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively (allegedly) spreading Hamas point of view and (allegedly) promoting antisemitism on social media.”
Deportation Orders
McLaughlin further stated that Suri has “close connections to a known or suspected Hamas personnel, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
This is likely referring to his father-in-law, Ahamed Yousef, who previously served as deputy foreign minister in the Hamas government and later led the House of Wisdom Institute in Gaza.
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The Secretary of State determined on 15th March 2025 that Suri’s activities rendered him deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(i), which applies to foreign nationals engaged in activities that could pose a security threat.
Lawyer alleges bias
Suri’s legal representative, Hassan Ahmad, argues that his client is being unfairly targeted, “He is being punished because of the Palestinian heritage of his wife, and because the government suspects that he and his wife oppose US foreign policy toward Israel,” according to Politico.
Suri met his wife, Maphaz Ahmad Yousef, in 2011 while assisting with an international aid convoy to Gaza. She was working as a translator with a humanitarian group. The couple married in January 2014 in Delhi after political instability in Egypt prevented them from holding the ceremony in Gaza.
Suri, who previously studied at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi, was teaching “Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia” at Georgetown University. His arrest follows the self-deportation of Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian student at Columbia University, who left for Canada after DHS linked her to pro-Palestinian campus activities.
DHS has been increasing efforts to target individuals suspected of spreading Hamas point of view as part of a broader crackdown by the Trump administration on such activities on US campuses.
