A Georgetown scholar living in Rosslyn has been detained by immigration authorities, prompting an outcry, including from Arlington’s congressman.
The arrest happened Monday night at the Rosslyn home of Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national, as first reported by Politico. It has continued the national debate about the intersection of free speech and immigration, which started with the arrest of a pro-Palestinian Columbia graduate student.
More on the latest arrest, below, from the Associated Press.
A Georgetown University researcher who is married to a Palestinian American was detained by immigration agents who told him his visa had been revoked, prompting another high-profile legal fight over deportation proceedings against foreign-born visa holders authorized to live in the U.S.
Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University and citizen of India, was arrested Monday night outside of his Virginia home by officers who identified themselves as Department of Homeland Security agents, according to a legal filing by Suri’s lawyer.
Hassan Ahmad, Suri’s Virginia-based attorney, wrote in a court filing that Suri was targeted because of his wife’s “identity as a Palestinian and her constitutionally protected speech.”
Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, “have long been doxxed and smeared,” the court filing stated. Critics have published Saleh’s photograph online along with information that includes her former employment with Al Jazeera and her birthplace in Gaza City “as support for her alleged ties with Hamas.”
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), who previously called for the release of the Columbia student, released a pointed statement “after his constituent, Georgetown postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri, was arrested and detained.”
The Trump administration “has punished speech with frightening, extreme measures that, if it happened in another country, most of us would not hesitate to call ‘authoritarianism,’” Beyer said.
The full statement is below.
Badar Khan Suri’s detention is a clear violation of his constitutional rights, and he must be released. Mr. Suri is here lawfully and is not accused of a crime, yet he was surrounded outside the Northern Virginia home where he lives with his wife – an American citizen – and their children, arrested by masked authorities without explanation, disappeared, imprisoned, denied access to legal counsel, and had his student visa revoked.
The ‘justification’ given for these violations of Mr. Suri’s right to due process is another violation of the Constitution: a blatant attack on the First Amendment. Mr. Suri and his family are unfortunately the latest victim of President Trump’s assault on the freedom of speech. Trump has made no effort to disguise the fact that the arrests of academics like Suri and Mahmoud Khalil is intended to have a chilling effect and discourage the free expression of political views which Trump dislikes.
In both cases, the administration has punished speech with frightening, extreme measures that, if it happened in another country, most of us would not hesitate to call ‘authoritarianism.’ It is authoritarianism, and while some will find false consolation in their own disagreements with the views expressed by those detained, the truth is that the horrifying precedent established by these cases may lead to the persecution of other individuals and groups with unforeseen consequences.
The courts must consider Mr. Suri’s case with all possible speed, given the administration’s track record of attempting to deny constitutional rights in ways that are difficult to undo before judicial remedies can be provided. Above all, the administration must stop its assault on the Bill of Rights, and until it does all reasonable people who claim to defend the Constitution must oppose what is happening to Badar Khan Suri.
Late Thursday afternoon, a federal judge in Alexandria ordered that Badar Khan Suri not be removed from the U.S., pending further court action.
