The U.S. government detained an Indian citizen who was studying and teaching at Georgetown University, and said he had been deemed “deportable” for violating the terms of his student visa.
The Indian national, Badar Khan Suri, was detained at his home in Rosslyn, Va., on Monday night, according to his lawyer, Hassan Ahmad. Mr. Suri was “awaiting his court date in immigration court” in Alexandria, La., Mr. Ahmad said. A spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, for the Department of Homeland Security said Mr. Suri was “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” Ms. McLaughlin didn’t provide any evidence to back the claim.
Ms. McLaughlin added that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had deemed Mr. Suri “deportable.”
Earlier this month, Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University who had led pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus, was detained by the Trump administration, which sought to deport him. While both men were deemed to be deportable under the same statute, Mr. Suri was studying in the United States on J-1 student visa while Mr. Khalil had a green card.
“Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,” Ms. McLaughlin, the spokeswoman for Homeland Security, said in a statement posted to social media.
Politico, which first reported the news of Mr. Suri’s detention, said that according to a lawsuit filed by Mr. Ahmad, Mr. Suri has no criminal record and has not been charged with a crime.
Georgetown University, where Mr. Suri was a postdoctoral fellow, said in a statement that it was not aware of him “engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention.”
In her statement, Ms. McLaughlin accused Mr. Suri of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” without providing evidence.
Mr. Ahmad said that Ms. Suri denied all of the allegations made in Ms. McLaughlin’s statement. He believed that the accusations against Mr. Suri were “seemingly based on who his father-in-law was,” but that he was still researching the case.
“Seeing our government abduct and jail another innocent person is beyond contemptible,” Mr. Ahmad said in a text message.