Federal judge rules detained Georgetown academic must be released and returned to Virginia

The judge ruled that the Trump administration should release on bond Badar Khan Suri to “disrupt the chilling effect” his detention has likely had on protected speech related to Palestine.

A federal judge in Alexandria ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration must immediately release on bond a Georgetown University academic detained  in Texas and return him to his home in Arlington. 

Ruling from the bench, Judge Patricia Giles of the Eastern District of Virginia ordered that Badar Khan Suri be released on bond from Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Texas, where he’s been for two months, and returned home to his wife and three children in Virginia. 

Giles said Suri’s release was in the public interest given that releasing him would “disrupt the chilling effect” his detention likely had on protected speech related to Palestine. 

Suri’s detention over his support for Palestine is one of several cases the Trump administration has pursued since President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January. Other Palestine supporters who the Trump administration has targeted over their speech or role in protests include Columbia University students Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi. 

Giles said that Trump administration lawyers had produced no evidence to contradict Suri’s lawyers’ arguments that his detention was a violation of his First Amendment and Fifth Amendment rights. Further, they had not filed any evidence to support public claims trying to tie Suri to Hamas. 

Suri is an Indian citizen who was studying at Georgetown on a visa before masked federal agents arrested him outside his Rosslyn home in March. The Trump administration wants to deport Suri for allegedly supporting Hamas, but government lawyers have not produced any evidence supporting that claim, which Suri adamantly denies. 

“He should have never been arrested and jailed for his constitutional protected speech just because the government disagrees with him,” said Sophia Gregg, an ACLU of Virginia lawyer who is part of Suri’s legal team. “He should have never been punished for his relationship with his wife and his father in law.”

Suri is married to Mapheze Saleh, a Palestinian-American whose father is a former adviser to a now-deceased Hamas leader. Both Suri and Saleh have made social media posts expressing support for Palestine, criticism of Israel for its military operations in Gaza, and remorse over the death toll in Gaza. Giles said such statements are likely protected speech. 

Saleh said at a press conference after the hearing that hearing Judge Giles’ words brought tears to her eyes and she wished she could have hugged Giles. 

“Badar told me, ‘If my suffering in the detention center is because I’m married to a Palestinian and because I spoke out against the genocide in Gaza, then I should wear it as a badge of honor,’” Saleh said. “‘What I endure here is a drop in the ocean compared to the pain of the Palestinian.’” 

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. 

Giles read out posts by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Donald Trump attacking protestors of Israel’s attacks on Gaza and supporters of Palestine. Trump said in January he planned to “quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses.” 

Giles said the government had multiple opportunities to submit any type of filing to contradict claims by Suri’s lawyers that the Trump administration was violating his First Amendment right to free speech and his Fifth Amendment right to due process. She noted that First Amendment rights extend to non-citizens like Suri. 

“These sorts of practices are commonplace by this administration but have not happened historically,” said Eden Heilman, an ACLU of Virginia lawyer on Suri’s legal team. “There is not a handbook unfortunately on how these scenarios typically unfold.”