Indian student in US detained for 'spreading Hamas propaganda', has visa revoked

Washington/New Delhi: An Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University has been detained by US immigration authorities for his alleged anti-Semitic posts on social media and close ties with a known senior advisor to Hamas.

Badar Khan Suri, who was studying and teaching on a student visa, was arrested by masked agents outside his home in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night, Politico reported.

His lawyer has filed a lawsuit seeking his immediate release.

The federal agents identified themselves as being with the Department of Homeland Security and told Suri that the government had revoked his visa.

Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a determination on Saturday that Suri’s visa should be cancelled for foreign policy reasons.

“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” McLaughlin wrote on X.

"Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas. The Secretary of State issued a determination on March 15, 2025 that Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(i)," she wrote on X.

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Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.

Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas. The Secretary of State issued a… https://t.co/gU02gLAlX1

— Tricia McLaughlin (@TriciaOhio) March 20, 2025 >

According to Suri’s petition for release, he was put in deportation proceedings under the same provision of immigration law that the government has invoked to try and deport Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia University graduate student and green card holder who led pro-Palestinian protests on campus.

That provision gives the Secretary of State the power to deport noncitizens if the Secretary determines that their continued presence in the US would threaten foreign policy.

Suri’s lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, argued in his petition that Suri is being punished because of the Palestinian heritage of his wife — who is a US citizen — and because the government suspects that he and his wife oppose US foreign policy toward Israel, Politico reported.

The petition says that Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, has been alleged to have “ties with Hamas” and once worked for Al Jazeera.

The petition mentioned a 2018 article about the couple that said Mapheze Saleh’s father, Ahmed Yousef, served as a “senior political adviser to the Hamas leadership".

Suri’s detention is the latest in a string of immigration-related arrests that Trump says are just beginning to ramp up.

The arrests, Trump says, target “terrorist sympathizers” or people who have “engaged in pro-terrorist, anti-Semitic, anti-American activity.”

Suri’s lawsuit was filed in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, on Tuesday.

Suri’s petition said he was taken to a facility in Virginia and expected to be transferred soon to a detention center in Texas.

Suri has a Ph.D. in peace and conflict studies from a university in India.

The detention of Suri comes a week after another Indian student, Ranjani Srinivasan, who was part of the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia had her visa revoked by the Trump administration for “advocating violence and terrorism”. The student “self-deported” on March 11 to Canada, the Department of Homeland Security said.