The Trump administration arrested a Georgetown University student Monday night, marking the latest apprehension of a foreign national accused of promoting extremist sympathies while attending a major U.S. university.
Federal immigration authorities arrested Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national who most recently worked as a researcher at the Washington, D.C.,-based Georgetown University campus, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation. DHS accuses Suri of spreading Hamas propaganda, promoting anti-Semitism and having close ties to a senior adviser to Hamas.
“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” a DHS spokesperson stated to the DCNF. “Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
“The Secretary of State issued a determination on March 15, 2025 that Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable,” the spokesperson continued.
The Indian national, working and studying on a student visa, was detained by immigration agents Monday night in the Rosslyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia, a suburb of Washington, D.C., according to Politico. His lawyers are arguing that he is being targeted by the Trump administration for his support of Palestine and because of his wife’s Palestinian heritage.
Suri’s petition for release says his wife, Mapheze Saleh, is being accused of having ties to Hamas and formerly worked for Al Jazeera, a major news company largely funded by the Qatari government, according to Politico. An article published by the Hindustan Times in 2018 identifies Saleh’s father, Ahmed Yousef, as a former “senior political advisor to the Hamas leadership.”
“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokeswoman, said on social media. “Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
“The Secretary of State issued a determination on March 15, 2025 that Suri’s activities and presence in the United States rendered him deportable under INA section 237(a)(4)(C)(i),” McLaughlin continued.
Amid the Israel-Hamas war, protests across numerous anti-Israel universities sprang up across the U.S., with many of them leading to unlawful occupation of campus grounds and resulting in arrests. Following through on a promise to crack down on those responsible, President Donald Trump has already overseen the arrest and deportation of several high-profile foreign students involved in alleged pro-Hamas activities.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on March 8 arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a Syrian-born Algerian national who became the face of the anti-Israel protests at Columbia University. Like the Suri case, the Trump administration is attempting to deport Khalil using a provision within the secretary of state’s authority that allows for the removal of any foreign national deemed a potential threat to U.S. foreign policy.
ICE agents also arrested Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, earlier in March after her student visa expired and was previously arrested for her alleged participation in pro-Hamas activity at Columbia University. Another foreign student protester, Indian national Ranjani Srinivasan, chose to voluntarily leave using Trump’s new self-deportation app after her visa was revoked for alleged pro-Hamas activities.
The Trump administration has also turned up the pressure on Columbia University by canceling roughly $400 million in funding for its alleged failure to squash anti-Semitic activity on campus. In response to the financial squeeze, Columbia officials began cracking down on students who were involved in aggressive protest activity, including multi-year suspensions, temporary degree revocations and full-blown expulsions.
Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese national working as an assistant professor at Brown University, was stopped at the Boston Logan Airport and sent back to her home country on Monday after Customs and Border Protection officials discovered she was returning from a funeral for Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Hezbollah terrorist group, and allegedly had numerous adoring pictures of other extremists on her cell phone.
A search for Suri’s whereabouts on the ICE detainee database indicates he is currently at a staging facility in Alexandria, Louisiana.
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