US seeks to deport Indian pro-Palestinian Georgetown University student
Badar Khan Suri, married to daughter of senior Hamas adviser, detained in Louisiana; Department of Homeland Security says he has ‘close connections’ to a ‘suspected terrorist’
WASHINGTON/NEW YORK — US President Donald Trump’s administration has detained an Indian man studying at Washington’s Georgetown University and is seeking to deport him after deeming him a harm to US foreign policy, the student’s lawyer said on Wednesday.
The US Department of Homeland Security accused Badar Khan Suri of ties to the Palestinian terror group Hamas and said he had spread Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media, according to a statement it shared with Fox News.
The DHS statement to Fox News, which was reposted by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, did not cite evidence. It said Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Suri’s activities “rendered him deportable.”
Suri — who is living in the US on a student visa and is married to American citizen Mapheze Saleh — has been detained in Alexandria, Louisiana, and is awaiting a court date in immigration court, his lawyer said. Federal agents arrested him outside his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, on Monday night.
Saleh is the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, a former deputy foreign minister for Hamas and senior adviser to the Hamas leadership, a relationship highlighted last month by the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis watchdog, a US-based pro-Israel group. Saleh’s Georgetown biography states she has written for Al Jazeera and Palestinian media outlets and that “she has worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Gaza, which provided her with a greater understanding of regional security, particularly in relation to Palestine.”
The ministry is controlled by Hamas, which the US designates as a terror organization.
Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown post doctoral fellow who spreads pro terror rhetoric and antisemitic propaganda on social media, has been arrested by DHS and set for deportation.
Suri is married to a Palestinian woman whose father is a senior Hamas figure and has previously… pic.twitter.com/zLUmSrf7RS
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) March 20, 2025
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin posted to X that Suri has “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior adviser 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, citing the same immigration act clause that is being wielded to deport a pro-Palestinian foreign activist from Columbia University.
The case comes as Trump seeks to deport foreigners who took part in anti-Israel protests following the 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. Administration officials say they are targeting non-citizens who have supported terror groups and thus have no place in the country.
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. His arrest was first reported by Politico.
“If an accomplished scholar who focuses on conflict resolution is whom the government decides is bad for foreign policy, then perhaps the problem is with the government, not the scholar,” Suri’s lawyer said in an email to Reuters.
Suri’s wife Saleh has not been arrested, the lawyer said.
???? Hi, Pam.???? @AGPamBondi
This is Mapheze Saleh. Her father, Ahmed Yousef, was an adviser for Hamas. She has stated that Oct 7 was an "act of resistance" and has expressed hatred for the United States, declaring: “America is the plague.”
She's a grad student at Georgetown. pic.twitter.com/2fZyNB2DFg
— NizNellie3 (@NizNellie3) March 11, 2025
A Georgetown University spokesperson said the university had not received a reason for Suri’s detention and was not aware of Suri engaging in any illegal activity.
Suri himself has been teaching a class this semester on “Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia” and has a PhD in peace and conflict studies from a university in India, according to the Georgetown University website.
In a post last month citing the CAMERA report on Saleh, Israel’s embassy in the United States posted to X that “On social media, Mapheze has expressed support for October 7 as an act of resistance and glorified terrorists responsible for the deaths of thousands as martyrs. Mapheze has also expressed hatred for the United States, declaring: “America is the plague.'”
Earlier this month the Trump administration arrested and sought to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil over his participation in anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian protests. Khalil is challenging his detention in court.
Trump officials have accused Khalil of supporting Hamas. Khalil’s legal team says he has no links to the terror group.
Khalil’s detainment was part of a broad crackdown on campus anti-Israel protests that the Trump administration says has included support for terrorism and is responsible for a surge in antisemitism.
Pro-Palestinian advocates, including some Jewish groups, say that their criticism of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and their support for Palestinian rights is wrongly conflated with antisemitism by their critics. Many Jewish students have reported feeling unsafe amid demonstrations.
The war erupted on October 7, 2023, when Hamas led over 5,000 attackers to invade southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251 as hostages to the Gaza Strip.
The Times of Israel Community.