Judge Blocks Deportation of Georgetown Researcher Accused of Hamas Ties

The judge ordered removal proceedings to be halted pending the outcome of a legal challenge.

The campus of Georgetown University in Washington on May 7, 2020. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the deportation of Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher from India, after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) alleged he had ties to the Hamas terror group and was promoting its propaganda while in the United States on a student visa.

Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued an order on March 20, preventing DHS from removing Suri from the country while his legal challenge remains pending. The decision invokes the All Writs Act, which allows courts to issue orders necessary to preserve their jurisdiction.

“Pursuant to the Court’s authority to preserve its jurisdiction under the All Writs Act, pending a ruling on the Petition, it is hereby ORDERED that Petitioner shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order,” Giles wrote.

Suri was arrested on March 17 outside his home in Arlington, Virginia, and charged with removability under a provision that allows for the deportation of noncitizens who engage in activities related to terrorist organizations, according to the order. Court filings indicate that he is detained at the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia.

DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had issued a determination to cancel Suri’s visa.

“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” McLaughlin wrote in a post on X. “Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”

Suri’s legal team has yet to comment publicly on the allegations or the court’s ruling. The Epoch Times has reached out to his attorney, Hassan Ahmad, for comment.

Ahmad told Politico in an interview that he has not been able to contact Suri since Wednesday evening, while calling his client’s detention “just another example of our government abducting people the same way they abducted Khalil.”

Suri’s attorney was referring to Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian student and U.S. permanent resident who was arrested after allegedly leading pro-Palestinian encampment protests at Columbia University against Israel’s military responses in the wake of Hamas’s terrorist attack on Israel in October 2023. DHS alleges Khalil was involved in leading “activities aligned with Hamas.”

Khalil’s arrest was carried out under executive orders issued by President Donald Trump that target individuals accused of engaging in anti-Semitic or pro-terrorist activities on U.S. college campuses.

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump warned that Khalil’s apprehension was the “first arrest of many to come.” The president added that further detentions would focus on individuals engaged in “pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity” on campuses nationwide.

Following his arrest, Khalil was transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana. U.S. officials have canceled his green card and are actively seeking his removal from the country. He has not been charged with a crime.

Khalil’s lawyer said that his arrest and impending deportation violated his constitutional rights.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has condemned Khalil’s detention in a post on X, saying that it was “a blatant attack on the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, immigration laws, and the very humanity of Palestinians.”

As for Suri, his habeas corpus petition, filed on March 18, challenges both the lawfulness of his detention and the government’s justification for removal.

A request for comment sent to DHS was not immediately returned.