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The university said on Wednesday, a post documentary fellow of Georgetown University has been detained by the Homeland Security Department, when the Trump administration continues its immigration clamps.
In a letter obtained by CNN, Robert Gros, interim president of Georgetown University, told his Board of Directors that Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen, who was “on a visa to continue his doctoral research on peace construction in Iraq and Afghanistan,” was detained by DHS.
The letter continued, “We are not aware of being involved in any illegal activity and we have not found any reason for its detention.” In a statement to the CNN, a university spokesman said, “We expect the legal system to decide the matter fairly.”
DHS spokeswoman Tresia MacLeflin said Wednesday post on x Suri “was actively spreading Hamas’s propaganda and promoting enmity on social media. Suri has close links with a well -known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior Hamas adviser.”
McLaflin also said that Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio issued a commitment on Saturday that “Suri’s activities and the presence of the United States have declared it worthy of deportation”, which gives the Secretary of State Authority the power to work if he or he believes that a non -citizen will have a united state.
CNN has reached the State and DHS for additional comments.
Suri’s lawyer Hassan Ahmed told CNN that his client was waiting for his hearing in the immigration court in Louisiana and he spoke to him on Wednesday night.
Ahmed told CNN an email, “I would say that it is commendable for another innocent person to see our government kidnapping and jail.” “And if a successful scholar who focuses on the resolution of the conflict, it is the one whom the government decides that it is bad for foreign policy, then this problem is probably with the government, not a scholar.”
By Wednesday evening, online court documents for Suri were not accessible.
Suri’s detention came when President Donald Trump continues to crackdown against students who are involved in Palestinian protests, send shock waves to US universities and raise concerns about the protection of free speech.
Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate and Palestinian activist at the University of Columbia, earlier this month, was arrested on the Trump administration Khalil – without any evidence – after allegations of terrorists being sympathetic and supporting Hamas. Khalil faces exile until his case is heard.
According to Suri’s bio -page on the university website, he is a colleague of understanding of the Al -Waleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian at the School of Foreign Service in Georgetown. He was teaching a class about large -scale and minority rights in South Asia this spring.
CNN’s House Perez participated in the report.
