Georgetown University graduate student detained by immigration authorities

WASHINGTON — Federal immigration authorities have detained a graduate student from India who was teaching at Georgetown University on a student visa, his attorney said Wednesday.

Masked agents arrested the student, Badar Khan Suri, outside his home in Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night, attorney Hassan Ahmad said.

The agents identified themselves as being with the Department of Homeland Security and told him the government had revoked his visa, Ahmad said. 

Ahmad called Suri’s detention “beyond contemptible” and said he had done nothing wrong.

Ahmad said he spoke with Suri on Wednesday night and that Suri was grateful for the support he has received since his arrest.

Suri is set to appear before an immigration judge in Los Fresnos, Texas, in May for his deportation proceedings, according to his attorney.

Separately, Suri filed a habeas corpus petition in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, in hopes of being released from detention. The petition is currently under seal and NBC News has yet to review a copy.

According to NBC News’s review of public records, Suri does not have a criminal record and does not face known criminal charges.

Georgetown said it was not aware of any misconduct by Suri.

The Department of Homeland Security and the State Department did not respond to requests for comment, including about why Suri has been detained.

Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said on X in response to the Politico story that Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”

She also alleged that “Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”

Suri was being held at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Alexandria, Louisiana, awaiting an immigration hearing, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainee locator. Ahmad confirmed his location.

Suri was detained as the Trump administration seeks to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student who took part in protests against Israel and the war in Gaza, by using a section of immigration law concerning "foreign policy consequences."

"Seeing our government abduct and jail another innocent person is beyond contemptible,” said Ahmad, Suri's lawyer. “And if an accomplished scholar who focuses on conflict resolution is whom the government decides is bad for foreign policy, then perhaps the problem is with the government, not the scholar.”

Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, according to his profile on Georgetown University’s website.

His biography says he completed his Ph.D. in peace and conflict studies at the Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi in 2020. He wrote his thesis on “Transitional Democracy, Divided Societies and Prospects for Peace: A Study of State Building in Afghanistan and Iraq.”

Georgetown said it has not been told why Suri was detained.

“We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention. We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable," the university said. "We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”

Suri has traveled extensively in the conflict zones in India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Palestinian areas, his university profile says.

His Georgetown profile says he is an “interdisciplinary scholar” whose areas of interest are religion, violence and peace, ethnic conflicts and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia.

The university says Suri is working on a project that looks into potential causes that hinder cooperation among religiously diverse societies and possibilities to overcome those hindrances. 

Suri’s attorney has filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court in Virginia, seeking to determine whether his detainment is lawful.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended attempts to deport Khalil by saying that "no one has a right to a student visa." A judge has temporarily blocked his deportation.

Last week, ICE arrested Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman who took part in protests at Columbia and who overstayed her student visa, officials said.