ALVARADO, Texas (AP) — A Georgetown University scholar from India who was arrested in the Trump administration’s crackdown on foreign college students was released from immigration detention Wednesday after a federal judge’s ruling.
Badar Khan Suri will go home to his family in Virginia while he awaits the outcome of his petition against the Trump administration for wrongful arrest and detention in violation of the First Amendment and other constitutional rights. He is also facing deportation proceedings in an immigration court in Texas.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Khan Suri told reporters after his release from a detention facility in Alvarado, near Dallas. “It took two months, but I’m extremely thankful that finally I’m free.”
Immigration authorities have detained college students from across the country — many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war — since the first days of the Trump administration. Khan Suri is the latest to win release from custody, along with Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, and Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian student at Columbia University.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, said she was releasing Khan Suri because she felt he had substantial constitutional claims against the Trump administration. She also considered the needs of his family and said she didn’t believe he was a danger to the community.
“Speech regarding the conflict there and opposing Israel’s military campaign is likely protected political speech,” Giles said. “And thus he was likely engaging in protected speech.”
The judge added: “The First Amendment does not distinguish between citizens and noncitizens.”
March arrest in Virginia
Khan Suri was arrested by masked, plain-clothed officers on the evening of March 17 outside his apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia. He was then put on a plane to Louisiana and later to a detention center in Texas.
The Trump administration has said that it revoked Khan Suri’s visa because of his social media posts and his wife’s connection to Gaza as a Palestinian American. They accused him of supporting Hamas, which the U.S. has designated as a terrorist organization.
Khan Suri and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, have been targeted because Saleh’s father worked with the Hamas-backed Gazan government for more than a decade, but before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Khan Suri’s attorneys say.
According to the U.S. government, Khan Suri has undisputed family ties to the terrorist organization, which he “euphemistically refers to as ‘the government of Gaza.’” But the American Civil Liberties Union has said that Khan Suri hardly knew the father, Ahmed Yousef.
Giles acknowledged the Trump administration’s need to prioritize national security but said that “whatever deference may be appropriate, concerns of national security” do not supersede the judiciary.
David Byerley, a Justice Department attorney, had argued against Khan Suri’s release. He told the judge that Khan Suri’s First Amendment case is inextricably intertwined with the deportation case in Texas, so he should stay there.
After the court hearing, Khan Suri’s lawyers declared victory and criticized the Trump administration for “disappearing” people over their ideas.
“He should have never had his First Amendment rights, which protect all of us regardless of citizenship, trampled on because ideas are not illegal,” said Sophia Gregg, an ACLU attorney. “Americans don’t want to live in a country where the federal government disappears people whose views it doesn’t like. If they can do this to Dr. Suri, they can do this to anyone.”
‘Extremely happy’ to be released
Khan Suri, an Indian citizen, came to the U.S. in 2022 through a J-1 visa, working at Georgetown as a visiting scholar and postdoctoral fellow. He and his wife have three children: a 9-year-old son and 5-year-old twins.
Before his arrest, he taught a course on majority and minority human rights in South Asia, according to court records. The filings said he hoped to become a professor and embark on a career in academia.
After his release, Khan Suri told reporters that he has studied conflict around the world and has sympathies for Jews and Arabs. He also thanked Jewish people and rabbis who came out in support of him.
He described his arrest as “Kafkaesque.”
“They said, ‘Hey, are you, Badar? You’re under arrest.’ I said, ‘For what?’ They said, ‘We will tell you later,’ ” he recalled. “And that thing never happened. They never said what wrong I did. My only wrong maybe is that I married a Palestinian girl, who is an American citizen, by the way.”
“They made a subhuman out of me,” he added. “They took me from one center to another, not letting my family know, not letting me know that I have attorneys.”
He said he’s “extremely happy” to be out, but “I feel bad for the students who are still inside.”
Alexandria Support Inside The Courtroom
Alexandria Mayor Alyia Gaskins was in the courtroom for the hearing.
“I thought it was important for me to attend in person today because the actions taken against Dr. Khan Suri represented a complete disregard for due process and free speech, which are among the most fundamental tenets of our democracy, Mayor Gaskins shared with ALXnow. “The courtroom was filled with Dr. Khan Suri’s family, friends, work colleagues, and advocates. Today, justice was served as the judge ruled for him to be released on bond and ordered to be returned to Virginia. But, this case is an important reminder that we must remain vigilant and steadfast in our commitment to uphold the civil rights of all persons, regardless of their immigration status”.
Alexandria Support Outside Of The Courtroom
Alexandria City Councilman Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi spoke to a crowd of about 50 supporters who were rallying outside the courthouse.
Elnoubi highlighted concerns about free speech and government overreach, connecting where he grew up, Alexandria, Egypt, to what’s happening in the United States today. “If you speak up or say anything the government doesn’t like, you disappear,” he said about Egypt. “There’s no democracy, no free speech, and you can’t hold the government accountable.”
The councilman stressed the importance of protecting free speech for everyone, regardless of political views. “We all support free speech,” he said. “When the administration starts using the law against Dr. Suri like this, it threatens all of our right to free speech.”
Elnoubi also criticized the current administration’s approach to constitutional rights, pointing to recent statements by the president. “The president says he’s not sure if he’s supposed to uphold the Constitution,” Elnoubi noted. “I think he forgot about the oath he took a few months ago to defend and protect it.”
The crowd responded to Elnoubi’s call for Suri’s release by chanting “Free him now.”
To wrap up, Elnoubi urged continued support for Suri and the defense of constitutional rights. “We’re at a critical point in our country,” he said. “Unless we stand together as Americans to defend this fundamental right in our Constitution, no one else will.”
Reaction
Following the decision, lawyers and Dr. Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, held a press conference.
“ICE illegally arrested and detained Dr. Badr Khan Suri in retaliation for his speech as a U.S. citizen,” said Sophia Gregg, Senior Immigrants Rights Attorney at the ACLU of Virginia, who argued the motion for Dr. Khan Suri’s release. “He should have never been arrested and jailed for his constitutionally protected speech just because the government disagrees with him.”
During the hearing, the court asked the government to provide the basis for Dr. Khan Suri’s detention. According to Asta Sharma Pokharel, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, the government admitted they “haven’t shown a basis” for the detention.
The judge’s decision emphasized that releasing Dr. Khan Suri serves the public interest by “disrupting the chilling effect of protected speech,” according to attorneys present at the hearing.
“The court was really clear today,” says Pokharel. “The Trump administration wanted to make an example out of him, but it failed because its tactics are illegal.”
Nirmin Arastu, head of the Immigrants and Noncitizens Rights Clinic at CUNY School of Law, called the ruling “a historic moment” where a federal judge acknowledged “how immigration laws were weaponized in this instance.”
“We heard today in court, the judge acknowledged the harms of detention,” Arastu said. “This was family separation. Three young children, a mother from their father from their support system.”
The legal team argued that Dr. Khan Suri’s case presented extraordinary circumstances. He was detained without criminal charges and transported across five states within 24 hours of his arrest.
“This has never happened in our country’s history where the government targets people in this manner under foreign policy grounds, weaponizing the immigration laws of the U.S.,” Gregg explained.
Dr. Khan Suri’s wife, Mapheze, expressed relief at the judge’s decision. “Hearing the judge’s words brought tears to my eyes. I wish I could give her a heartful hug from me and from my three children who long to see their father,” she said.
Mapheze described her husband as “a scholar, a researcher and a lover of freedom, truth and justice” who has been wrongfully detained. “I am proud to be his wife and the mother of his three children,” she added.
Georgetown faculty members have supported the case, submitting testimony describing Dr. Khan Suri as kind, patient, calming, and devoted to building peace and resolving conflict.
“Members of the faculty, many members of the faculty at Georgetown and people who have known Dr. Suri for a few years or decades have written testimony to the court that Dr. Suri has a strong commitment to justice and is deeply dedicated to building peace and resolving conflict,” Gregg notes.
The legal team expects the government may appeal the decision to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. They plan to continue fighting both the federal case and a parallel immigration proceeding.
“We will be fighting full-fledged on both of those parallel tracks now to ensure that our client gets full access to his due process rights in the immigration system,” Arastu said.
The attorneys emphasized that Dr. Khan Suri’s detention represents a broader threat to constitutional rights. “If they can do this to Dr. Khan Suri, they can do this to anyone,” Gregg warned.
Pokharel added that despite the government’s attempts to silence speech about Palestine, “the voices for Palestinian liberation keep getting louder and louder.”
The legal team remained at the courthouse following the hearing to ensure Dr. Khan Suri’s release and return to Virginia, where he will be able to resume teaching at Georgetown University.
“I can’t wait for the moment when my husband will reunite with my children,” Mapheze said. “It’s a victory, a victory for all of us, a victory for justice.”
ACLU of Virginia
The ACLU of Virginia provided the following statement following the judge’s decision;
Georgetown Scholar to Be Freed From Detention in Another Loss for the Trump Administration
Federal judge orders Dr. Badar Khan Suri released; ICE arrested him on March 17th for constitutionally protected speech and associations
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A federal court today ordered Dr. Badar Khan Suri released from detention on bond eight weeks after immigration authorities arrested him in retaliation for constitutionally protected speech and associations. He will be able to return from Texas to Virginia, where his case challenging the constitutionality of his arrest is proceeding, and where he lives with his wife and three children.
“Hearing the judge’s words brought tears to my eyes,” said Dr. Khan Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh. “I truly wish I could give her a heartfelt hug from me and from my three children, who long every day to see their father again. Speaking out about what’s happening in Palestine is not a crime. Let’s show the world that this country is still a place where people can and do express their beliefs without fear.”
Dr. Khan Suri, an Indian national, is a lawful visa holder married to a Palestinian-American U.S. citizen. Prior to his arrest, both were doxxed by the extremist blacklisting websites Canary Mission and CAMERA. Federal immigration agents abducted Dr. Khan Suri outside his home on March 17th for speech in support of Palestinian rights and family ties to Gaza, then secretly transported him 1,500 miles away from his family and his attorneys.
After being transferred to five different ICE facilities across three states in just four days, Dr. Khan Suri arrived at an immigration detention center in Texas, where he spent nearly two weeks in a room without a bed and with a television blaring twenty-one hours a day. He was observing the holy month of Ramadan, but ICE officials denied him water and food to break his fast. He was issued used underwear, as well as a bright red high-risk uniform reserved for people alleged to pose the greatest security threats.
“The Constitution protects us all – regardless of citizenship – from being targeted by the government for our political speech and our family associations. The Trump administration is trying to silence speech it doesn’t agree with by targeting people like Dr. Khan Suri and Mahmoud Khalil, but ideas are not illegal,” said ACLU of Virginia Legal Director Eden Heilman. “Dr. Khan Suri’s arrest and detention far away from his family is part of an extreme and unprecedented attack by this administration designed to punish students and academics for their views, and we won’t stop fighting until Dr. Khan Suri gets justice.”
Last week, the judge rejected the Trump administration’s request to dismiss Dr. Khan Suri’s habeas case or move it to Texas, keeping it in Virginia. Separately, Dr. Khan Suri’s immigration case, in which the Trump administration is seeking to have him deported, is proceeding in Texas. The next immigration hearing is scheduled for June 3rd.
Today’s ruling adds to mounting losses for the Trump administration in cases in which it has arrested immigrant students and academics for criticizing U.S. support for Israel’s assault on Gaza. In the last two weeks, federal courts have similarly ordered Columbia student Mohsen Mahdawi and Tufts PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk released from detention.
“We are so glad that Dr. Khan Suri will very soon be free – to be with his family, with his community, and to return to his studies,” said Astha Sharma Pokharel, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “The court’s order today should send a clear message to the Trump administration that it cannot arrest someone, rip them away from their family, and incarcerate them just for standing in solidarity with Palestinians and against the genocide in Gaza.”
“The administration’s attempt to misuse the immigration system against Dr. Khan Suri is a clear effort to bypass due process and suppress protected speech,” said Nermeen Arastu, associate professor at CUNY School of Law. “Dr. Khan Suri’s release demonstrates the strength of his principles, the power of community organizing, and the impact of legal advocacy. But it also serves as a stark reminder of how vulnerable our rights become when government overreach is left unchallenged.”
Dr. Khan Suri is challenging his arrest and detention under the First Amendment, the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment, and the Administrative Procedure Act. He is represented in his federal lawsuit by the ACLU of Virginia, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the HMA Law Firm, and the Immigrants and Non-Citizens Rights Clinic at the CUNY School of Law.
For more information, please see the case page.
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Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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Diaz reported from Alexandria, Virginia. Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.
