Judge bars US from deporting Georgetown student detained for alleged Hamas ties

A federal judge has ordered US President Donald Trump’s administration not to deport Badar Khan Suri, an Indian man studying at Washington’s Georgetown University whose lawyer says the United States is seeking to remove him after it accused him of harming American foreign policy.

According to the three-paragraph order by US District Judge Patricia Giles in Alexandria, Virginia, the order will remain in effect until lifted by the court.

The Department of Homeland Security has accused Badar Khan Suri of ties to the Palestinian terror 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 US on a student visa, 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 says.

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

DHS doesn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday’s court order.