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Washington Post
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
Georgetown scholar recalls terror and 'mockery of due process' in immigration jail
ARLINGTON, Va. — One of the lowest moments of Badar Khan Suri's two months in federal custody was being crammed onto an airplane with hundreds of other shackled prisoners. The Trump administration was trying to deport the Georgetown University scholar over statements he made against Israel's war in Gaza. The guards wouldn't say where they were headed, but the Indian national was convinced it was out of the United States.
The Independent
22-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Georgetown scholar recalls terror and 'mockery of due process' in immigration jail
One of the lowest moments of Badar Khan Suri's two months in federal custody was being crammed onto an airplane with hundreds of other shackled prisoners. The Trump administration was trying to deport the Georgetown University scholar over statements he made against Israel's war in Gaza. The guards wouldn't say where they were headed, but the Indian national was convinced it was out of the United States. Then Khan Suri had to use the plane's bathroom. He said the guards refused to unshackle his wrists. 'They said, 'No, you have to use it like this or do it in your trousers,'' Khan Suri recalled of the trip, taking him to a Louisiana detention center. 'They were behaving as if we were animals.' Khan Suri, 41, was released on bond last week as his lawsuit against the U.S.'s deportation case continues. In an interview with The Associated Press, he spoke Thursday of repeated lies by prison guards who said he could talk to his wife when he couldn't. His living quarters were a cramped open cell with a toilet where he worried and waited anxiously, fearful about what would happen next. Speaking with The AP, he addressed the Trump administration's accusations that he spread ' Hamas propaganda.' Khan Suri said he only spoke in support of Palestinians, who are going through an 'unprecedented, livestreamed genocide.' 'I don't support Hamas,' he said. 'I support Palestine. I support Palestinians. And it is so deceiving for some people who just publish canards ... They will just replace Palestine with Hamas.' Yet, because of his comments, he said U.S. authorities treated him as if he had committed a high-level crime. Fellow inmates said his red uniform was reserved for the most dangerous offenders. 'I said, 'No, I'm just a university teacher. I did nothing,' Khan Suri recalled. Still, there were rays of hope. He said more than a hundred people from the Georgetown community wrote letters on his behalf to the federal judge overseeing his case, including some who are Jewish. A crowd also greeted him when he arrived back in Virginia. 'Hindus, Jews, Christians, Muslims — everyone together,' said Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow who studies religion, peace and violence. 'That is the reality I want to live with. That's the reality I want to die for. Those people together.' 'I was not in Russia or North Korea' U.S. Immigration authorities have detained international college students from across the country — many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war — since the early days of Trump's second administration. The administration has said it revoked Khan Suri's visa because he was 'spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media," while also citing his connections to 'a senior advisor to Hamas,' which court records indicate is his wife Mapheze Saleh's father. Saleh is a Palestinian American whose father worked with the Hamas-backed Gazan government in the early 2000s, but before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Khan Suri's attorneys have said. They also said he barely knew his father-in-law, Ahmed Yousef. Khan Suri's attorneys said he wouldn't comment on Yousef during Thursday's interview, which mostly covered his arrest and time in custody. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Khan Suri's statements. Khan Suri said he was arrested just after he taught his weekly class on minority rights and the majority. Masked police in plain clothes pulled up in an unmarked car outside his suburban Washington home. They showed no documentation, such as a warrant, he said. Other than saying his visa was being revoked, they refused to explain the reason for his arrest. He described it as a 'kidnapping." 'This is not some authoritarian regime,' Khan Suri said. 'I was not in Russia or North Korea. I was in the best place in the world. So, I was shocked.' 'How can this be happening?' As police whisked him away, Khan Suri realized they wanted to deport him. The 'dehumanizing procedures' came next: A finger scan, a DNA cotton swab and chains binding his wrists, waist and ankles, he said. They also said he could talk to his wife at a detention center in Virginia, but 'that never happened." He said he slept on a floor without a blanket and used a toilet monitored by a camera. The next day, he said he and other detainees were placed in a van, which soon rolled up to an airplane. 'I asked them where I am going now? Nobody would reply anything,' Khan Suri said. 'They just pushed us in.' He said the bathroom situation did not get better at a federal detention center in Louisiana, where Khan Suri was taken next. It lacked a privacy barrier and was also watched by a camera. He was finally able to call his wife, but he said she couldn't hear him. Khan Suri said he was 'extremely terrified,' thinking that someone was making his family not reply. He was not able to speak to a lawyer, while fellow inmates said everyone there is deported within three days, Khan Suri said. 'I was crying from inside, 'How can this be happening?" he said. 'A few hours back, I was in Georgetown teaching my students, talking about peace and conflict analysis.' Through the abyss Khan Suri said his first seven or eight days of captivity were the same: 'Same terror. Same fear. Same uncertainty. Same mockery of rule of law.' 'I was going more and more deeper, reaching to my abyss,' he added. 'And I was discovering that the abyss also has more and more depth.' But he was still praying five times a day, uncertain which direction Mecca was. 'I was very strong like that, that God will help me. American Constitution will help me. American people will help me,' he said. Afterward, Khan Suri was transferred to a detention facility in Texas, where he said he slept on the floor of a crowded cell for the first two weeks. Eventually, he got his own cot. And, finally, he was allowed to speak to his attorneys, which he said led to a change in treatment. He soon received a Quran and then a prayer rug. As for the rug, he rolled it up like it was his son. 'My eyes would become wet, and I would give that blanket a hug as my son so that this hug should reach him,' Khan Suri said. 'And when I came back, he told me the same, that he was hugging a pillow.' ___ Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Associated Press
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Associated Press
Georgetown scholar recalls terror and 'mockery of due process' in immigration jail
ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — One of the lowest moments of Badar Khan Suri's two months in federal custody was being crammed onto an airplane with hundreds of other shackled prisoners. The Trump administration was trying to deport the Georgetown University scholar over statements he made against Israel's war in Gaza. The guards wouldn't say where they were headed, but the Indian national was convinced it was out of the United States. Then Khan Suri had to use the plane's bathroom. He said the guards refused to unshackle his wrists. 'They said, 'No, you have to use it like this or do it in your trousers,'' Khan Suri recalled of the trip, taking him to a Louisiana detention center. 'They were behaving as if we were animals.' Khan Suri, 41, was released on bond last week as his lawsuit against the U.S.'s deportation case continues. In an interview with The Associated Press, he spoke Thursday of repeated lies by prison guards who said he could talk to his wife when he couldn't. His living quarters were a cramped open cell with a toilet where he worried and waited anxiously, fearful about what would happen next. Speaking with The AP, he addressed the Trump administration's accusations that he spread 'Hamas propaganda.' Khan Suri said he only spoke in support of Palestinians, who are going through an 'unprecedented, livestreamed genocide.' 'I don't support Hamas,' he said. 'I support Palestine. I support Palestinians. And it is so deceiving for some people who just publish canards ... They will just replace Palestine with Hamas.' Yet, because of his comments, he said U.S. authorities treated him as if he had committed a high-level crime. Fellow inmates said his red uniform was reserved for the most dangerous offenders. 'I said, 'No, I'm just a university teacher. I did nothing,' Khan Suri recalled. Still, there were rays of hope. He said more than a hundred people from the Georgetown community wrote letters on his behalf to the federal judge overseeing his case, including some who are Jewish. A crowd also greeted him when he arrived back in Virginia. 'Hindus, Jews, Christians, Muslims — everyone together,' said Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow who studies religion, peace and violence. 'That is the reality I want to live with. That's the reality I want to die for. Those people together.' 'I was not in Russia or North Korea' U.S. Immigration authorities have detained international college students from across the country — many of whom participated in campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war — since the early days of Trump's second administration. The administration has said it revoked Khan Suri's visa because he was 'spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,' while also citing his connections to 'a senior advisor to Hamas,' which court records indicate is his wife Mapheze Saleh's father. Saleh is a Palestinian American whose father worked with the Hamas-backed Gazan government in the early 2000s, but before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Khan Suri's attorneys have said. They also said he barely knew his father-in-law, Ahmed Yousef. Khan Suri's attorneys said he wouldn't comment on Yousef during Thursday's interview, which mostly covered his arrest and time in custody. The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Khan Suri's statements. Khan Suri said he was arrested just after he taught his weekly class on minority rights and the majority. Masked police in plain clothes pulled up in an unmarked car outside his suburban Washington home. They showed no documentation, such as a warrant, he said. Other than saying his visa was being revoked, they refused to explain the reason for his arrest. He described it as a 'kidnapping.' 'This is not some authoritarian regime,' Khan Suri said. 'I was not in Russia or North Korea. I was in the best place in the world. So, I was shocked.' 'How can this be happening?' As police whisked him away, Khan Suri realized they wanted to deport him. The 'dehumanizing procedures' came next: A finger scan, a DNA cotton swab and chains binding his wrists, waist and ankles, he said. They also said he could talk to his wife at a detention center in Virginia, but 'that never happened.' He said he slept on a floor without a blanket and used a toilet monitored by a camera. The next day, he said he and other detainees were placed in a van, which soon rolled up to an airplane. 'I asked them where I am going now? Nobody would reply anything,' Khan Suri said. 'They just pushed us in.' He said the bathroom situation did not get better at a federal detention center in Louisiana, where Khan Suri was taken next. It lacked a privacy barrier and was also watched by a camera. He was finally able to call his wife, but he said she couldn't hear him. Khan Suri said he was 'extremely terrified,' thinking that someone was making his family not reply. He was not able to speak to a lawyer, while fellow inmates said everyone there is deported within three days, Khan Suri said. 'I was crying from inside, 'How can this be happening?' he said. 'A few hours back, I was in Georgetown teaching my students, talking about peace and conflict analysis.' Through the abyss Khan Suri said his first seven or eight days of captivity were the same: 'Same terror. Same fear. Same uncertainty. Same mockery of rule of law.' 'I was going more and more deeper, reaching to my abyss,' he added. 'And I was discovering that the abyss also has more and more depth.' But he was still praying five times a day, uncertain which direction Mecca was. 'I was very strong like that, that God will help me. American Constitution will help me. American people will help me,' he said. Afterward, Khan Suri was transferred to a detention facility in Texas, where he said he slept on the floor of a crowded cell for the first two weeks. Eventually, he got his own cot. And, finally, he was allowed to speak to his attorneys, which he said led to a change in treatment. He soon received a Quran and then a prayer rug. As for the rug, he rolled it up like it was his son. 'My eyes would become wet, and I would give that blanket a hug as my son so that this hug should reach him,' Khan Suri said. 'And when I came back, he told me the same, that he was hugging a pillow.' ___ Olivia Diaz is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
The National
20-05-2025
- Politics
- The National
The pro-Palestine students caught up in Trump's war on liberal universities
Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University researcher detained because of his views on Gaza, has been released from custody in Texas after a judge ruled the US government overstepped by arresting him in March. A US district judge made the much-anticipated decision on Wednesday. Mr Suri was released on bond and will be able to return to Virginia. "After months of sorrow, loss, and pain, when I saw my kids, it was like an oasis in the desert, and in their arms I found my life again. It was a surreal experience," he said shortly after his release. Since President Donald Trump took office on January 20, his administration has turned a critical eye on students, scholars and professors expressing sympathy for Palestinians amid the continuing Israel-Gaza war. Non-citizens in the US on visas have been detained and threatened with deportation by federal authorities. Some are student protest organisers, others have simply written in support of Palestine. In Mr Suri's case, his marriage to someone who had expressed support for Palestine was sufficient for the government to arrest him. Pro-Palestinians are also being targeted by groups using artificial intelligence to expose them and report them to authorities. The State Department reportedly hasn't ruled out using AI to help it revoke the visas of international students accused of supporting Hamas, again, often without due process or a nuanced interpretation of what demonstrators may have said or done. The State Department has not provided current figures on how many visas it has revoked. In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at least 300. Here is a look at some of the most prominent cases. Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate who was a leader in campus pro-Palestine protests last year, is being held in an immigration detention centre in Louisiana. He was arrested in New York on March 8, with video showing agents from the Department of Homeland Security taking him into custody without a warrant, handcuffing him and forcing him into an unmarked car. Shortly after his detention, Mr Trump wrote that Mr Khalil was a 'radical foreign pro-Hamas student'. Despite his legal team's arguments that Mr Khalil's right to free speech was violated and that he was apprehended without due process, Judge Jamee Comans disagreed. She said the government had demonstrated sufficiently Mr Khalil's presence in the US could have 'potentially serious foreign policy consequences', therefore the case met the legal threshold for deportation. Late last month, federal immigration authorities denied Mr Khalil's request for temporary release from detention to attend the birth of his first child. He has filed an appeal to try to prevent his deportation and the case remains under adjudication. Authorities in Vermont apprehended Mohsen Mahdawi on April 14. A student, Mr Mahdawi has been an outspoken critic of Israel's military campaign in Gaza and organised campus protests. He cofounded the Palestinian Student Union at Columbia with Mr Khalil. The State Department and Department of Homeland Security deemed Mr Mahdawi 'removable' under the Immigration and Nationality Act. It also said his actions could have 'serious adverse foreign policy consequences and would compromise compelling US foreign policy interest'. He spent 16 days in detention until US District Judge Geoffrey Crawford raised doubts over the State Department's rationale for the arrest and detention. 'The two weeks of detention so far demonstrate great harm to a person who has been charged with no crime,' the judge said. Mr Mahdawi could still be deported depending on how things unfold in court, with US authorities appealing the Vermont judge's decision. He plans on starting his master's degree at Columbia beginning in the autumn. On March 25, Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk was on her way to meet friends and break fast during Ramadan when masked agents surrounded her and took her into custody near her home in Massachusetts. The Department of Homeland Security accused Turkish student Ms Ozturk, 30, without providing evidence, of 'engaging in activities in support of Hamas', the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group designated a foreign terrorist organisation by the US government. Ms Ozturk, who is also a Fulbright Scholar, last year co-wrote an opinion piece in a student newspaper criticising Tufts's response to student calls to divest from companies with Israel ties and to 'acknowledge the Palestinian genocide'. A federal judge on March 28 stopped her deportation after Ms Ozturk's lawyers filed a lawsuit saying her detention infringed her right to free speech and due process. After spending six weeks in a Louisiana detention centre, Ms Ozturk's legal team secured a major victory by convincing a judge to order her release on the grounds US federal authorities had not provided evidence to justify her arrest. It is expected the Trump administration will challenge the ruling. On March 17, Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen studying at Georgetown University in Washington DC, was arrested at his Virginia home by the Department of Homeland Security. Department officials claimed Mr Suri 'has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior adviser to Hamas', and that Mr Rubio had determined that the scholar's activities 'rendered him deportable'. His lawyers have so far successfully argued for a lack of due process and charges to justify his deportation. In the weeks since his initial detention, demonstrators have gathered on Georgetown's campus in support of Mr Suri and the university's dean Joel Hellman issued a lengthy statement explaining his concern over the arrest and detention. As noted above, Mr Suri was released on bond on May 14.
New York Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Why Mahmoud Khalil Remains in Detention as Other Protesters Are Freed
Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, was released after 58 days. Rumeyza Ozturk, a Tufts doctoral student, was released after 45 days. Mohsen Mahdawi, a Columbia undergraduate, was released after 16 days. But 72 days after his arrest on March 9, Mahmoud Khalil — the country's most prominent pro-Palestinian-protester-turned-prisoner — is still detained in Jena, La., waiting for a New Jersey federal judge to decide whether he can go free while his immigration case proceeds. The Trump administration has invoked a rarely cited law to argue that Mr. Khalil's presence in the country threatens its foreign-policy goal of halting antisemitism. Mr. Khalil's lawyers have argued that the government is retaliating against their client, a legal permanent resident, for participating in protests that shook Columbia University's campus and that he should have his liberty while his immigration case is assessed. The New Jersey judge, Michael E. Farbiarz, has been thoroughly engaged. But he has yet to weigh in fully on the issues of free speech and due process that have attracted enormous attention to Mr. Khalil's case. His meticulous approach has made the case an exemplar of Trump-era justice, in which the White House frequently moves with a speed that courts are not used to matching. Mr. Khalil's lawyers have repeatedly asked the judge to decide whether to release their client on bail, like the other students, before ruling on the issues at the heart of the case. The judge has responded that he must deal with the procedural basics first. Judge Farbiarz has issued numerous orders and written two lengthy rulings: a 67-page determination that he had the right to preside over the case and a 108-page opinion asserting that his control over the case had not been stripped. In the second ruling, he acknowledged that the law's response to cases like Mr. Khalil's 'has been the same across the board: no unnecessary delay.' That opinion was issued on April 29. 'Mahmoud is understandably frustrated that he was the first to be detained and nine weeks later is still in detention,' said Baher Azmy, one of Mr. Khalil's lawyers. 'But we remain optimistic that the court will see through the patent unconstitutionality of the government's actions here and order him released soon.' Legal experts acknowledged that Judge Farbiarz, 51, has proceeded more slowly than other judges. But they emphasized that each judge was different and said they believed it made sense, particularly for an early-career jurist like Judge Farbiarz, to be as thorough as possible. 'In a case that has gotten this much notoriety, I think there's every reason if you're the judge to make sure you have all of your ducks in a row,' said Stephen I. Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University. 'Judge Farbiarz knows that there is a national spotlight, not just on him but on the ability of the federal courts to handle cases like these.' Judge Farbiarz has a reputation for thorough, methodical preparation that borders on the obsessive. Before he ascended to the bench in 2023, he was a federal prosecutor in Manhattan, where he headed the office's terrorism and international narcotics unit. As a prosecutor, he led a case against one of Osama Bin Laden's sons-in-law, and another against the first Guantánamo Bay detainee to be tried in civilian court. He also prosecuted a Swedish citizen, Oussama Kassir, who was accused of plotting to set up a training camp for terrorists at an Oregon ranch. Mark S. DeMarco, a defense lawyer based in the Bronx, represented Mr. Kassir. He was struck by the future Judge Farbiarz's sense of fair play, and his thoroughness. 'All his bases were covered. There was no stone left unturned,' Mr. DeMarco remembered, adding, 'He was probably one of the most prepared prosecutors I've gone up against as an adversary.' After leaving the Manhattan office, the ex-prosecutor became a senior fellow at New York University's law school, and worked on academic papers that focused on jurisdiction and due process issues involving defendants outside the United States — issues similar to those he has pondered at length in Mr. Khalil's case. 'What's really marked about those articles is they do not read as somebody straight out of the prosecutorial trenches,' said Daniel Richman, a law professor at Columbia University who is friendly with the judge. 'They read as written by somebody who stepped back from his own practice and really tried to get it right in terms of the legal doctrine.' People caught up in the legal system often find that judges do not rule quickly enough to account for rapidly unfolding events. The disjuncture has been particularly notable during the second Trump administration, during which courts have struggled to keep up. 'A lot of us on the outside expect federal courts to move with the same dispatch that the executive branch can move. That's not practicable and it's not wise,' Mr. Vladeck said. 'What separates judicial power from political power is principled legal rationale. Sometimes it takes a little time to make sure that you've got the right principles to inform your position.' In Mr. Khalil's case, the administration moved with characteristic speed, both in initially detaining him and in rationalizing his arrest. A spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department quickly claimed he had led activities 'aligned to Hamas.' And Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, accused him of 'siding with terrorists,' and of participating in protests in which 'pro-Hamas' fliers were handed out. But in the weeks since, those allegations have not been substantiated. Evidence submitted in Mr. Khalil's immigration case revealed no secretive support for Hamas. And his lawyers have pointed to comments he made on CNN saying that 'antisemitism and any form of racism has no place on campus and in this movement.' His case continues to play out in two separate courts. Judge Farbiarz has the power to free him and to determine the constitutionality of the administration's attempts to deport him. An immigration court judge, Jamee Comans, is overseeing his immigration proceedings, which determine more narrowly whether the United States has met the legal burden for deporting him. Mr. Khalil's next immigration court hearing is scheduled for Thursday. Over the weekend, friends and supporters of Mr. Khalil held a 'people's graduation' event in Manhattan, acknowledging that if he were free, he would have walked in a Columbia University commencement this week. Mr. Khalil's wife, Dr. Noor Abdalla, was there with the couple's infant son, Deen, who was born on April 21. Speaking through tears, Dr. Abdalla said she had looked forward to her husband getting to experience his commencement ceremony. 'Like witnessing the birth of our son, Deen, and the first precious month of his life, this moment was stolen from him,' she said.
