Judge bars deportation of pro-Palestinian Georgetown University student

By Tom Hals and Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) -A federal judge ordered President Donald Trump's administration not to deport Badar Khan Suri, an Indian man studying at Washington's Georgetown University whose lawyer has said the United States was seeking to remove him after it accused him of harming U.S. foreign policy. 

The order is to remain in effect until lifted by the court, according to the three-paragraph order by U.S. District Judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia.

The Department of Homeland Security has accused Suri of ties to the Palestinian militant group Hamas and said he had spread Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media. On March 15, Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined Suri could be deported for those activities, according to DHS.

Suri is living in the U.S. on a student visa, is married to an American citizen and has been detained in Alexandria, Louisiana, according to his lawyer. He is awaiting a court date in immigration court, his lawyer said.

Federal agents arrested him outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on Monday night. The lawyer welcomed Thursday's ruling and called it "the first bit of due process Dr. Khan Suri has received since he was snatched from his family Monday night."

The American Civil Liberties Union also defended Suri and said he was "transferred to multiple immigration detention centers" before being taken to Alexandria, Louisiana.

DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday's court order.

The case comes as Trump seeks to deport foreigners who took part in pro-Palestinian protests against U.S. ally Israel's war in Gaza following an October 2023 Hamas attack. Trump's measures have sparked outcry from civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups who accuse his administration of unfairly targeting political critics by invoking rarely used laws.

Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown's Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is part of the university's School of Foreign Service.

Suri's wife, Mapheze Saleh, is a U.S. citizen, said his lawyer. Saleh is from Gaza, according to the Georgetown University website, which said she has written for Al Jazeera and Palestinian media outlets and worked with the foreign ministry in Gaza. Saleh has not been arrested, the lawyer added.

The lawyer had said on Wednesday Suri was being targeted for his wife's Palestinian heritage and for his own pro-Palestinian views.

Some media outlets, including the Washington Post, reported that Ahmed Yousef, the father of Suri's wife, was a former political adviser to Hamas. Yousef had also written for some Western publications like The Guardian.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration arrested and sought to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests. Khalil was moved to Louisiana and is challenging his detention in court.

Trump, without evidence, has accused Khalil of supporting Hamas. Khalil's legal team says he has no links to the militant group that the U.S. designates as a "foreign terrorist organization."

Trump has alleged pro-Palestinian protesters are antisemitic. Pro-Palestinian advocates, including some Jewish groups, say that their criticism of Israel's assault on Gaza and their support for Palestinian rights are wrongly conflated with antisemitism by their critics.

(Reporting by Tom Hals and Kanishka Singh; Editing by Caitlin Webber and Diane Craft)