Georgetown researcher arrest escalates Trump speech crackdown, scholars say

Al Jazeera

21-03-2025

Washington, DC – Nader Hashemi, a professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University, has been a vocal critic of efforts to silence pro-Palestine protesters and academics amid Israel's war in Gaza.
Those efforts reached new heights under the administration of President Donald Trump, which last week took the extraordinary measure of detaining and seeking to deport Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, a permanent resident married to a US citizen.
Then, immigration authorities came for one of Hashemi's own students. Earlier this week, agents detained Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which Hashemi directs.
'It's shocking, and it sort of confirms our worst fears that authoritarian repression on American universities is expanding under the Trump administration,' said Hashemi.
Civil liberties groups and rights observers have decried — and challenged — Khalil's attempted deportation, which Hashemi and other observers describe as an extension of the anti-Palestinian bias in the US government.
That has often involved conflating anti-Jewish sentiment and support for Hamas, which the US categorises as a 'terrorist organisation', with statements criticising Israeli military action or support for Palestinians, they say.
But Hashemi and his colleagues see the targeting of Suri, who is in the US on a student visa, as going a step further, given that he was detained not for public protests but for his alleged personal views.
Khaled Elgindy, a visiting scholar at Georgetown who focuses on Palestinian-Israel affairs, said the Trump administration's enforcement efforts appear to be entering 'a different realm with this case', extending beyond student visa holders and US residents sanctioned for their protest activity.
'This person seems to have been targeted, not for his activism,' he said, 'but simply for being suspected of holding certain views.'
'Adverse foreign policy consequences'
For its part, the US Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday confirmed that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had approved Suri's deportation.
Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said Rubio made the determination by citing the same law used to justify the attempted deportation of Khalil.
It is a provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the secretary of state power to remove any non-citizen whose presence in the US is deemed to have 'adverse foreign policy consequences'.
McLaughlin accused Suri of 'actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media', without providing further details. The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for further information from Al Jazeera.
She also said Suri 'has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior adviser to Hamas'.
On Wednesday, Suri's wife, Mapheze Saleh, confirmed to Al Jazeera that she is a US citizen. Meanwhile, Ahmed Yousef, a former adviser to assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, confirmed to The New York Times that Suri was his son-in-law.
Yousef told the newspaper he had left his position in the political wing of Hamas over a decade ago and has publicly criticised the group's decision to attack Israel on October 7, 2023. He said that Suri was not involved in 'political activism', much less support for Hamas.
Suri has roundly rejected the allegations against him, his lawyer, Hassan Ahmad, told US media. His legal team, which includes the Virginia office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has filed a petition at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia seeking his release.
He remained at a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centre in Louisiana on Thursday.
In a statement on Wednesday, Georgetown University also said it supports its community members 'rights to free and open deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable'.
Meanwhile, the Alwaleed Center issued a passionate defence of Suri on Thursday, saying he has become the victim of a 'campaign by the Trump Administration to destroy higher education in the United States and punish their political opponents'.
'Direct threat to learning'
Both Suri and his wife Saleh had previously been singled out by 'Campus Watch', a project out of the Middle East Forum that says it 'reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North American universities'.
Critics have accused the project of being a tool to silence criticism of Israel in higher education.
Hashemi, meanwhile, described Suri as a 'very respected and serious academic'.
'In many ways, [Suri] was the exact opposite to Mahmoud Khalil, in the sense that he was not an organiser or a leader. He was simply a researcher and postdoctoral fellow at our centre,' Hashemi said, 'who was just working on themes of minority rights, majoritarianism and the problem of authoritarianism.'
Elgindy, meanwhile, said the Trump administration continues to embrace a 'dangerous conflation' when it comes to complex discussions of Palestinian rights and resistance.
'Really any expression of solidarity with Palestinians or criticism of Israel is deemed in and of itself, to be both anti-Semitic and inherently supportive of terrorism and Hamas,' he said.
Elgindy described a 'genuine atmosphere of fear' when it comes to open academic debate on the complex realities that define the Israel-Palestine conflict.
'It really cuts to the heart of academic freedom — if people have to censor themselves, if students are afraid to ask certain questions or raise certain points because maybe someone in the class is recording and is going to share with some of these extremist groups out there that have been doxxing students,' he said.
'The intent is to chill debate and to make people second guess whether they should express certain views at all.'
A 'blatant attack'
On Thursday, Congressman Don Beyer, who represents northern Virginia, also weighed in on Suri's detainment, calling it a violation of his right to 'due process' and a 'blatant attack on the First Amendment', referring to the US Constitution's protections for freedom of speech.
His statement offered a preview of the principles likely to be raised in federal courts.
The Trump administration has taken the broad position that those constitutional rights are not extended to temporary visa holders or even US permanent residents.
But courts have largely upheld the right of immigrants to enjoy free speech, the freedom of assembly and other basic liberties.
Beyer called for a judge to swiftly make a ruling on Suri's challenge to his imminent deportation, pointing to 'the administration's track record of attempting to deny constitutional rights in ways that are difficult to undo before judicial remedies can be provided'.
Late Thursday, a federal judge barred the Trump administration from immediately deporting Suri. His lawyers told Reuters news agency he was awaiting a date for a hearing in immigration court.
Both Hashemi and Elgindy, meanwhile, pointed to the need for the academic community to take a firm stand against Trump's actions, while acknowledging the difficult landscape educators and administrators face.
Beyond the risks to professors on temporary work visas, Trump has also pledged to cut federal funds to institutions that do not take severe enough measures against protesters and 'agitators'.
His administration has already cut $400m in grants and contracts for Columbia University.
'I think the worst is yet to come,' Hashemi said. 'Unless the people stand up and push back.'