‘Ideas are not illegal’: Arlington academic fights back against Trump administration’s deportation efforts

The ACLU of Virginia alleges that Suri, an Indian citizen who was studying at Georgetown on a J-1 visa, was targeted because he and his wife exercised their freedom of speech and because his wife has ties to Gaza.

New details have emerged around the March arrest of Arlington resident Badar Khan Suri by immigration officials, which Suri’s lawyers argue prove that his arrest was politically motivated and violates the First Amendment.

Suri was returning to his Rosslyn neighborhood home on March 17 from a traditional Ramadan meal celebration when masked federal agents descended on him, according to new details released by the ACLU of Virginia, which is helping Khan in his legal fight against the Trump administration. A hearing is set for May 1 in Alexandria in the case of Suri v Trump. 

These agents told Suri, a Georgetown University professor and postdoctoral fellow, he was being deported that day and the agents took his passport, according to the ACLU of Virginia. 

The ACLU of Virginia alleges that Suri, an Indian citizen who was studying at Georgetown on a J-1 visa, was targeted because he and his wife exercised their freedom of speech and because his wife has ties to Gaza. Suri’s detainment follows a similar pattern to the detainment of Columbia University pro-Palestininan activist Mahmoud Khalil. 

“The Trump administration is trying to silence speech it doesn’t agree with by targeting people like Dr. Khan Suri and Mahmoud Khalil, but ideas are not illegal,” ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Mary Bauer said in a statement. “Americans don’t want to live in a country where the federal government ‘disappears’ people whose views it doesn’t like.”

Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for DHS, said on X on March 19 that Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.” McLaughlin did not offer any examples to support her claim. 

“Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,” McLaughlin said in her post. On April 5, McLaughlin re-posted a tweet about a Gaza protest marching on the  headquarters of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement with the comment, “Low hanging fruit.” 

A lawyer for Suri told The New York Times in March that he denied all of McLaughlin’s allegations and that they seem to stem from who his father-in-law is. Suri’s wife is Palestinian American and her father, Ahmed Yousef, is a former advisor to a Hamas leader assassinated by Israel in Iran last year, the Times reported.

Suri said in an April 8 statement that he has never even been to a protest.

“I came to the U.S. to work and raise my family: I go to work, come home late, and still they came and took me and broke my family,” said Suri, a scholar of religion and peace processes. “In my work, I’ve seen lots of injustice. I just didn’t think it would happen to me here.”

Suri’s son has stopped speaking after spending days crying uncontrollably. Prior to Suri’s arrest, he and his wife were doxxed online by right-wing websites, the ACLU of Virginia said. 

After being detained in March, Suri was taken to an ICE office in Washington, where an arresting officer told him they knew he was not a criminal and that someone high up in the Secretary of State’s office “does not want you here,” according to the ACLU of Virginia. 

Suri was then transferred among five different ICE facilities in three states over the course of four days, despite ICE records indicating that there were beds in Virginia facilities, the ACLU of Virginia said. Multiple ICE facilities refused to give Suri food or water so he could break his fasting in religious observance of Ramadan, the ACLU of Virginia said. 

According to the ACLU of Virginia, Suri was then housed in a room without a bed and with a TV blaring for 21 hours a day for two weeks. Suri was given used underwear and a bright red uniform usually meant for people who have been deemed “high security” based on their criminal history or alleged ties to criminal organizations, the ACLU of Virginia said. Suri is not allowed to work or spend more than two hours per week outside his room. 

“Noncitizens have every right to express political ideas, including support for Palestinian rights,” said Astha Sharma Pokharel, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “And no one should be targeted for who they’ve married. If they can do this to Dr. Khan Suri or Mahmoud Khalil, they can do this to any of us.”

Suri is one of hundreds of international students and alumni who’ve been targeted by the Trump administration in recent weeks. An Inside Higher Ed tracker has identified more than 150 colleges and universities where nearly 800 international students and recent graduates have had their legal status changed or stripped by the State Department. Some, like Suri, have even been arrested.

While Khalil and Suri are being targeted for their role in protests or ties to Gaza, other students are seeing their visas revoked for infractions as minor as traffic violations, according to immigration attorneys.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the ACLU of Virginia’s account of Suri’s arrest and detention.