Department of Homeland Security agents arrested Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a researcher at Georgetown, outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia on Monday night, according to reporting by Politico.
Khan Suri is an Indian national, and postdoctoral fellow at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He was lawfully in the United States through a student visa, according to a university spokesperson. His lawyer has filed a lawsuit petitioning for habeas corpus, which is a petition to bring someone detained by a state before a court to determine if their detention is lawful. According to Politico, the petition says that Khan Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime.
The spokesperson also stated that they are “not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity” and “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. We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly,” the spokesperson wrote.
Khan Suri is the husband of Mapheze Ahmad Saleh (GRAD ’26), a U.S. citizen. Saleh’s father, Ahmed Yousef, was a “senior political advisor to Hamas leadership,” according to the Hindustan Times.
Saleh is currently a masters student at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown. Following an article by CAMERA on Campus, a nonprofit dedicated to “defending Israel against hostility and distortions on campus,” Saleh’s biography went viral on X. In the storm that followed, a number of right-wing accounts and publications called for her expulsion and deportation.
Khan Suri’s detention comes less than two weeks after ICE officials arrested Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil was one of the most visible activists in the Pro-Palestine protests last spring at Columbia, which were part of a wave of protests at colleges across the country, including at George Washington University, where some Georgetown students participated.
ICE arrested Khalil on March 8 in his Columbia-owned apartment, and he has since been held in a detention facility in Louisiana. Khalil has written from detention, calling himself a “political prisoner” being held as a result of his Pro-Palestinian activism, in a letter dictated to his lawyers. The Trump administration has called for Khalil to be deported, but on March 10, a federal judge in New York issued an order preventing his deportation. Khalil’s case has been moved to New Jersey, after the federal government attempted to move it to Louisiana. The federal government also attempted to deny Khalil’s habeas petition, but the federal judge in New York upheld it.
Khalil and Khan Suri’s arrests followed an executive order from President Trump in January, which promised to “Deport Hamas Sympathizers and Revoke Student Visas.” Many have criticized the order as limiting free speech and targeting pro-Palestine activism by painting all speech critical of Israel as antisemitic.
Khan Suri came to Georgetown after receiving a Ph.D. in Peace & Conflict Studies from Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution, according to his faculty page on GU360.
This story is developing and will be updated.
