Federal judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ordered that Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown researcher and legal U.S. resident, cannot be removed from the country, pending the outcome of a lawsuit seeking his release from detention.
The judge in Virginia’s Eastern District did not rule on the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Khan Suri, who was detained outside his home in Virginia on Monday, March 17. DHS agents detained Khan Suri as he was returning home from iftar, according to the petition for habeas corpus filed by Khan Suri’s attorney.
Khan Suri has no criminal record, and the lawsuit states that he was not charged with a crime before his detention. Khan Suri is currently being held in an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Louisiana, where he was transferred without his counsel’s knowledge, according to an emergency motion to stop the Trump administration’s deportation of Khan Suri filed by the ACLU of Virginia (ACLU-VA) shortly before the judge’s ruling.
“Dr. Suri’s experience is shocking and disgraceful,” said Khan Suri’s immigration attorney Hassan Ahmad in a statement from the ACLU-VA. “It should worry everyone that masked government agents can disappear someone from their home and family because the current administration dislikes their opinion.”
ACLU-VA Executive Director Mary Bauer added that the First Amendment protects the right to free speech of people in the United States, regardless of immigration status.
“Political speech – however controversial some may find it – may never be the basis for punishment, including deportation,” Mary Bauer, ACLU-VA executive director, said in a statement. “We will not let this egregious, unprecedented, and illegal abuse of power go unchecked.”
This story is developing and will be updated.
