ICE detains Georgetown postdoctoral scholar Badar Khan Suri over social media speech
Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, was arrested by ICE outside his Virginia home on March 17, 2025. DHS cited his social media activity and family connections, invoking the same foreign-policy removal provision used against Mahmoud Khalil.
On the night of March 17, 2025, ICE officers arrested Dr. Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University's Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, outside his apartment in Rosslyn, Virginia. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin alleged Khan Suri had spread 'Hamas propaganda' on social media and cited his family connections; he was transferred to a Louisiana detention facility. The Secretary of State invoked 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(4)(C), the foreign-policy removal provision. A federal judge in the Eastern District of Virginia later ordered his release, finding constitutional concerns with the basis for detention. The case was widely cited alongside the Khalil and Ozturk cases as an example of immigration enforcement responding to protected expression.