ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) – Researchers at Georgetown University are being detained by immigration officers, prompting another famous legal battle over a deportation lawsuit against foreign-born visa holders living in the United States
Badar Khan Sri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University, was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media,” Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said late Wednesday on X, formerly known as Twitter. Deportation efforts arise amid a legal battle over Columbia University’s international affairs incident graduate student And a Lebanese doctor.
Politico, who first reported on the Suri case, said a masked agent arrested him outside his home in Arlington, Virginia on Monday night, and his visa was revoked and cited legal filings by his attorney.
His lawyers did not immediately respond to a message seeking further comment Thursday. Online court dockets show an emergency move was raised Tuesday against the Trump administration to halt deportation proceedings.
The Georgetown University webpage identifies Suri as a postdoctoral researcher at the Alwaleed bin Talal Centre for Muslim and Christian Understanding at the University. The university said areas of interest include religion, violence and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia. Bio says he earned his PhD in India while studying his efforts to introduce democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq, and he traveled extensively in conflict zones in several countries.
In a statement Thursday, the university said Sri was “officially recognized a visa for entering the United States to continue his doctoral studies on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“We do not recognize that he is engaged in illegal activities and have not received any reason for his detention,” the school said. “Even when fundamental ideas are difficult, controversial or unfavourable, we support the right to free investigation, deliberation and debate of community members. We hope that the legal system will justly award this case.”
The U.S. Customs Enforcement and Enforcement Detention Locator website lists SURI as being under the custody of immigration officers at the Alexandria staging facility in Louisiana.
Elsewhere, Columbia University student activist Mahmoud Khalil is a legal US resident with no criminal history, who was detained earlier this month with a focus on participating in Palestinian demonstrations, fighting deportation efforts in federal courts. And Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was deported over the weekend despite having a US visa.
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