Community members march, call for Dr. Badar Khan Suri’s release

About 150 students, faculty, and community members gathered outside Healy Hall on Sunday to protest against the detainment of Dr. Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown postdoctoral fellow. 

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents detained Khan Suri outside his home on the evening of Monday, March 17. Khan Suri is a researcher at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding and teaches an undergraduate seminar. According to a university spokesperson, Khan Suri is legally in the U.S. through a student visa, and as of Wednesday, Georgetown had “not received a reason for his detention.” 

Demonstrators listened to speeches and marched around campus, from Healy Hall to Red Square, Cooper Field, Leo’s, and back to Healy Hall. The protesters chanted statements like “Dr. Badar you’re not alone, this campus is a freedom zone” and “Gaza, Gaza you will rise, the students are by your side.”

Demonstrators called on the university to advocate for Khan Suri’s release.

“The Trump administration organized to arrest him because they want to silence anyone advocating for an end to Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, and we cannot let this happen,”  demonstrator Norman Francis Jr. (CAS ’20, LAW ’28) said. “You simply can’t disappear someone and strip them of their rights because you don’t like what they have to say.”

Protesters also called on Georgetown to divest from corporations with ties to Israel’s military, protect pro-Palestinian speech, and declare Georgetown a “sanctuary campus.”

“I think it’s absolutely imperative that the university declares itself a sanctuary campus, that it states that it will not comply with any federal law enforcement, it will not allow ICE on this campus,” Fiona Naughton (SFS ’26), who attended the protest, said.

According to the university counsel’s website, the university requires a warrant or express university consent to enter non-public areas such as classrooms, dorms, and offices. 

“Georgetown has a clear protocol in place ensuring that any law enforcement actions on campus adhere to due process, including the requirement of a warrant or subpoena when necessary,” a university spokesperson said in response to questions about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on campus. 

The university general counsel’s page also advises students not to provide government officials with information from students’ records—which can include immigration status—without speaking to the university. 

“You should not, and have no responsibility to, provide information to a federal or state official requesting information immediately on a phone call or during an in-person visit,” according to the website. “In almost all cases, the University has the right to a reasonable opportunity to review and respond to the request.”

Khan Suri’s attorney filed a lawsuit earlier this week alleging that DHS violated his First Amendment right to free speech and his Fifth Amendment right to due process. The lawsuit claims that Khan Suri’s detention is part of the Trump administration’s effort to suppress pro-Palestine activism by “targeting noncitizens for removal based on protected speech.” On Thursday, a federal judge ordered that Khan Suri cannot be deported as the lawsuit is still pending.

Khan Suri is married to Mapheze Ahmad Saleh (MAAS ’26), who is a U.S. citizen. According to the Hindustan Times, which interviewed Saleh in 2018, Saleh’s father, Ahmed Yousef, was a “senior political advisor” to Hamas. Yousef later left Hamas and condemned its Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israel.

As of mid-day Sunday, Khan Suri is being detained at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, according to ICE’s detainee locator system. An ICE webpage created in 2021, which has since been removed, detailed an investigation into Prairieland Detention Center for allegations of “inadequate medical care of detainees, and environmental health and safety concerns at the facility.”

“Dr. Badar Khan Suri was abducted on Monday night, the same night the zionist entity broke the ceasefire and heavily bombed Gaza, murdering over 400 Palestinians in their sleep,” a member of the Palestinian Youth Movement said in a speech at the rally. “The forces that supply Israel with its weapons of mass genocide are the same forces that try to crush any opposition to the genocide of our people.”

Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed over 50,000 Palestinians in a ground invasion and bombardment, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, though the actual death toll may be much higher. In November 2024, a UN Special Committee found that the IDF’s methods of attacks on Gaza, including the deliberate blocking of food and other aid, have been “consistent with the characteristics of genocide.” This recent escalation is part of a conflict that has been ongoing since before the establishment of the Israeli state. 

While Hamas and the Israeli government agreed to a ceasefire in January, the IDF broke the ceasefire this week, citing that Hamas had not returned the promised number of Israeli hostages. Fifty-nine hostages remain in Hamas captivity, though Israel believes 35 are deceased. Since the ceasefire ended, the IDF launched strikes on Gaza that killed over 400 Palestinians and has ordered mass evacuations in southern Gaza.

Protesters and speakers at the rally called on Georgetown to divest from companies that support the Israeli government. Georgetown holds more $55 million in investments in Alphabet and Amazon, both of which develop cloud computing technology for the Israeli military through the $1.2 billion Project Nimbus deal.

“The imperial state is terrified that workers are refusing to send arm shipments to the Zionist entity. They’re terrified that students are putting everything on the line for divestment,” a Georgetown undergraduate student said in a speech. “They’re terrified that Palestine is the heart of liberation everywhere.”

Protesters said that Khan Suri’s detainment is part of a larger pattern of suppression of pro-Palestine activism.

“We have to understand that this is not an isolated incident,” Naughton said. “Anything that happened to Dr. Suri can happen to any non-citizen and his rights being violated is an absolute infringement on every single one of our civil rights and we have to stand together as a community and demand that this cannot happen to any other person.”

Khan Suri’s detainment came just days after ICE officials arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who had been a lead organizer in pro-Palestine protests at Columbia last spring. Khan Suri and Khalil’s arrests followed President Trump’s promise in January to “cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses.”

A speaker at the protest read Georgetown Students for Justice in Palestine’s (SJP) statement on Khan Suri’s detainment.

“The series of abductions, forced disappearances, and deportations of community members—most recently at Georgetown—is the US government’s latest attempt to crush dissent to its perpetration of the genocide in Palestine. The state is abducting people purely on the basis that they oppose genocide,” the speaker read.

Students came to the rally for a variety of reasons. E (LAW ’26), who asked to be identified by only her first initial, said that she came to the protest because, despite “really complicated” feelings about SJP and the movement, she believes no one should be penalized for free speech. 

“I’m Jewish, and I’m really disappointed in the institutional Jewish response to all of these deportations or detentions,” E said. “I would love there to be more of a Jewish response that’s like, ‘Hey, even if we don’t agree on the issues, we agree on the ability to organize on campuses, talk on campuses, resolve issues through speech rather than force.’”

E had also seen many students at Georgetown University Law Center (GULC) shy away from talking about controversial issues over the past year. GULC was recently targeted by D.C. U.S. Attorney Ed Martin for its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Martin declared that if Georgetown did not end its DEI programs, which he did not specify, its students and graduates would no longer be eligible for jobs in the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“Over the last year and a half, law students have stopped speaking out on what they see as controversial issues that could endanger their employment,” E said. “I think there’s a real fear of being associated with something that will drag you down politically or drag you down professionally, and that’s being heard around the country in people refusing to stand up for others.”

Despite these fears, attendees emphasized that now is the time to speak out against controversial issues. Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK, a feminist and anti-imperialist advocacy organization, attended the rally because she believes that student activism is at its most powerful in times of crisis.

“I know people are concerned about how this will affect their student loans, how this will affect their careers,” Benjamin said. “But there are times in history, like right now, where you have to put those issues aside and just do what is morally right. And this is one of those moments.”

Students called on their peers to continue protesting and to call for Khan Suri’s release.

“I think, myself included, those of us who are citizens have a responsibility right now to speak up for and speak out for our non-citizen comrades.” Lela (SFS ’26), who asked to be identified by her first name only, said.

Naughton echoed Lela’s sentiment, imploring students to speak out against the Trump administration’s detention of Khan Suri and others.

“Especially if you have citizenship, if you’re not on scholarship or financial aid, you have an absolute obligation and right to show up for this community, to come to protest, to use your voice, and to do everything in your power to fight this repression and infringement on civil liberties,” Naughton said.