Georgetown University graduate student detained by immigration authorities
Federal immigration authorities have detained a Georgetown University graduate student from India who was teaching at the Washington, D.C., institution on a student visa, his attorney said Wednesday.
The graduate student, Badar Khan Suri, was arrested by masked agents outside his Arlington, Virginia, home on Monday night, attorney Hassan Ahmad said.
The agents identified themselves as being with the Department of Homeland Security and told him the government had revoked his visa, Ahmad said.
The news was first reported by Politico.
Ahmad called Suri's detention "beyond contemptible" and said that Suri has done nothing wrong.
Georgetown University said it was not aware of any misconduct by Suri.
The Department of Homeland Security and State Department did not respond to a request for comment, including about why Suri has been detained.
Suri's detainment comes as the Trump administration is seeking to deport Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who took part in protests against Israel and the war in Gaza, by using a section of immigration law concerning "foreign policy consequences."
"Seeing our government abduct and jail another innocent person is beyond contemptible,' Ahmad, Suri's lawyer, said. 'And 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 is a postdoctoral fellow at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, according to his profile on Georgetown University's website.
His biography says he completed his Ph.D. in peace and conflict studies from the Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi in 2020. He wrote his thesis on 'Transitional Democracy, Divided Societies and Prospects for Peace: A Study of State Building in Afghanistan and Iraq.'
Georgetown University said it has not been told why Suri was detained.
'We are not aware of him engaging in any illegal activity, and we have not received a reason for his detention. We support our community members' rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable," the university said. "We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.'
Suri has travelled extensively in the conflict zones in India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Palestinian areas, his university profile says.
His Georgetown profile says he is an 'interdisciplinary scholar' whose areas of interest are religion, violence and peace, ethnic conflicts and peace processes in the Middle East and South Asia.
The university says he is working on a project that looks into potential causes that hinder cooperation among religiously diverse societies and possibilities to overcome those hindrances.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended attempts to deport Khalil by saying that "no one has a right to a student visa." Khalil's deportation has been temporarily blocked by a judge.
Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman who took part in protests at Columbia and who overstayed her student visa, officials said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald Scotland
28 minutes ago
- The Herald Scotland
Federal agents, protesters clash in Los Angeles over immigration
Police declared an unlawful assembly and responded by firing tear gas, pepper spray and flash-bang concussion rounds toward the crowd. The clash marked one of the most serious confrontations yet between agents carrying out Trump's directives on mass arrests and deportations, and local officials who oppose the stricter enforcement measures. The Department of Homeland Security said 118 undocumented immigrants were arrested during the week in Los Angeles, including five alleged gang members and others with criminal records for smuggling, drug trafficking and assault. Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said agents were outnumbered June 6 for hours as more than 1,000 rioters surrounded the federal building. "What took place in Los Angeles yesterday was appalling," Lyons said in a statement June 7. Lyons, who vowed to continue the enforcement action, accused Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of taking "the side of chaos and lawlessness over law enforcement." Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said city policy since 1979 has barred officers from initiating police action based solely on trying to determine a person's immigration status. He said the department "will not assist or participate in any sort of mass deportations." "I'm aware that these activities cause anxiety for many Angelenos, so I want to make it clear: the LAPD is not involved in civil immigration enforcement," McDonnell said in a statement. Bass said she was "deeply angered" about the enforcement actions and that she would coordinate with immigrant-rights organizations. "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city," Bass said in a statement. "We will not stand for this." "We will," FBI Director Kash Patel replied on social media June 7. One of the skirmishes involved the arrest of a union leader, David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union of California, who was injured and detained by ICE at one site. The union said Huerta was arrested "while exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity." "We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice," Huerta said in a post on social media. "This is injustice." U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli accused Huerta of deliberately obstructing federal agents at a worksite. Huerta will be arraigned in federal court June 9, Essayli said. "Let me be clear: I don't care who you are - if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted," Essayli said in a post on social media. "No one has the right to assault, obstruct, or interfere with federal authorities carrying out their duties." Federal authorities said they would continue their enforcement actions despite the protests in Los Angeles and across the country. ICE announced June 6 that nearly 1,500 undocumented immigrants were arrested in Massachusetts during a monthlong Operation Patriot.
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Scotland is giving this essential art the platform it has been denied
Although many hundreds – including some very big names – signed, several notable artistic directors of buildings I have worked in chose not to respond. Meanwhile, in Scotland, the prestigious Edinburgh International Festival has proudly programmed Ahmed Masoud's exceptionally powerful short play, The Florist Of Rafah, which is part of Cutting The Tightrope, a collection of pieces by 14 eminent playwrights that explore the art's and society's unprecedented censorship of Palestine. Cutting The Tightrope's journey from London to Scotland is a story of rags to riches. In May 2024, these short political plays went on in the small studio at the Arcola Theatre in East London as a totally unfunded rapid response piece. Put together in a fortnight, they were staged against the backdrop of Israel's decision to hold 2.3 million people hostage by closing their borders, while threatening to cross Joe Biden's 'red line' with a ground invasion of Rafah – an ancient city which a year later barely exists. Meanwhile, the Charity Commission's clause of 'political neutrality' had been so weaponised by Israeli lobby groups that Arts Council England (ACE) – an organisation that is supposed to protect artistic freedom – updated its policy guidelines to warn that anyone in a regularly funded arts organisation making 'political statements' could cause 'reputational damage' and therefore 'breach funding agreements'. READ MORE: 'Joy, celebration and warmth' of Palestinian art to be showcased at Edinburgh Fringe Although subsequently retracted, a FOI request revealed the statement had been made immediately after a meeting between ACE and the UK Government about Israel/Palestine and the message was clear: speak out and your organisation may lose government funding. The National Theatre, which had projected the Ukrainian flag on its building's expansive white wall, now chose to say nothing at all. Although Cutting The Tightrope's first run garnered rave reviews, and instantly sold out with long waiting lists, ACE still rejected a small bid made to transfer the show to the Arcola's main house. Its reason was revealing. It ticked the box that claimed other shows were 'more likely to make a difference', despite ours being the only show about the genocide playing to packed audiences, who yearned a creative space to unleash their grief and rage and find much-needed solidarity. I wonder what ACE now makes of our being selected by the International Festival to showcase the best of British theatre to an international audience. The very silence adopted by ACE and major English theatres to preserve their position has simultaneously made them even more irrelevant. By obeying the command to look the other way, they have lost the devotion of artists brave enough to speak out, imaginative enough to think outside the box and collaborative enough to together create phenomenally ambitious work against all odds. Aghast, these artists stepped into the void and used their talents to protest, creating work enormous in its necessity, bravery, emotional weight, urgency and impact – thereby attracting in droves the new young and truly diverse audience the theatre so needs to survive. After 19 months, an unstoppable new art movement has been forming across disciplines: a movement of rebellion. Like Dadaism emerging from the ruins of world war, this urgent movement is born from the ruins of Western values, placing solidarity, integrity and the artist's voice at its core. And where have these radical artists – penalised or ignored in most of the UK – found a platform? Scotland. Take Gaza Biennale – Jinnaah UK whose importance in celebrating, supporting and documenting more than 50 artists in Palestine confronting genocide cannot be overstated. Until recently, the current and lost artworks of these artists – who by facing erasure must surely be the most critical and precious of our time – were relegated to being projected by GB-JUK on to the walls of cultural institutions in London. In Scotland, however, three of their artists are currently being proudly displayed along the Edinburgh Pavilion. In one of Cutting The Tightrope's short plays, Dare Not Speak, a murdered girl, Hind, ends the play with a premonition that she will haunt the dreams of an artistic director. Sometimes I wonder, when watching the play, if there will soon be any artistic directors left to haunt, if mainstream English theatres continue to limp so feebly behind the politics of the day. Cutting the Tightrope will run from August 14 to 17 at the Edinburgh International Festival
The National
3 hours ago
- The National
Scottish Government urges Chancellor to drop cuts in spending review
Finance Secretary Shona Robison urged the UK Government to abandon some of its 'damaging policies' such as cuts to welfare support for disabled people, to scrap the two-child benefit cap and to reinstate a universal Winter Fuel Payment, ahead of the review on June 11. She said the Scottish Government had not yet been provided with 'clarity' on spending priorities. READ MORE: Man arrested after Glasgow city centre incident which saw several roads shut She asked the Chancellor to award funding for the Acorn carbon capture project and to ensure Scotland receives a share of GB Energy funding that matches its contribution to UK clean energy goals. Robison (above) said: 'The UK spending review is an opportunity for the UK Government to abandon some of its damaging policies such as cuts to welfare support for disabled people, to scrap the two-child benefit cap and to reinstate a universal winter fuel payment. 'We are also aware of the huge impact of the increase in employer's national insurance, not least on public services. I hope UK ministers will use the spending review to fully-fund the costs of this tax hike on jobs to vital public services like the NHS. READ MORE: 'Joy, celebration and warmth' of Palestinian art to be showcased at Edinburgh Fringe 'The UK Government should also use the spending review to empower the devolved administrations with more flexible fiscal rules that can enable investment in public services. 'We need an end to spending that bypasses devolution so we can direct funds to best meet local needs. 'We called on UK ministers to involve us at an early stage of this process, but since they've refused to provide us with any clarity on their spending priorities it's clear that its business as usual for Westminster. 'We continue to call on the Treasury to use the spending review to change course, providing the funding we need to deliver for the people of Scotland.'
