A federal judge ordered the release of Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University professor and postdoctoral scholar who was arrested by immigration authorities in Northern Virginia in March.
U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles said Wednesday Khan Suri has not been accused of or convicted of a crime. His detention was in violation of his First Amendment right to free speech and his Fifth Amendment right to due process, she said.
Khan Suri walked out of the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas, later Wednesday after Giles’ ruling.
“They made a sub-human out of me. They took me from one center to another not letting my family know – not letting me know that I have attorneys,” he said in an interview with NBC5 Dallas-Fort Worth a short time after his release.
“I was chained. My ankles, my wrists, my body – everything was chained,” he said.
He said he looked forward to seeing his wife and children soon.
“We need to be courageous in these tough times,” he said. “If it is tyranny, if it is totalitarianism, if it authoritarianism, we need to be courageous because courageous is contagious and with courage we can build bridges between different people.”
The Department of Homeland Security accused Khan Suri of “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media.”
Giles said in her ruling the government failed to provide evidence that Khan Suri was a flight risk or danger to the community. She added that they also did not provide proof to support that Khan Suri would be a national security risk.
Khan Suri’s release was in the public’s interest, Giles ruled, because it would disrupt the chilling effect his detention has had on protected political speech.
His wife, Maphaz Ahmad Yousef, said hearing the judge’s words “brought tears to my eyes,” NBC News reported.
“I wish I could give her a heartfelt hug,” Yousef said at a news conference.
Khan Suri has been a postdoc at Georgetown for the past three years.
Masked agents arrested him outside his home in Arlington, Virginia, on March 19. The agents identified themselves as being with the Department of Homeland Security and told him the government had revoked his visa.
The Trump administration said it quickly moved Khan Suri from a facility in Farmville, Virginia, because of overcrowding to a detention center in Louisiana and then to Texas.
Khan Suri’s attorneys had filed a petition that sought to determine whether his detainment was lawful, known as a habeas corpus petition.
Earlier this month, attorneys for the U.S. argued to move Khan Suri’s deportation case from Virginia to Texas, saying the habeas petition must be filed where the petitioner is detained. Giles denied their request and said she has jurisdiction over the habeas petition challenging his detainment.
Khan Suri’s attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union told the judge that once in Texas, Khan Suri slept on the floor of an overcrowded detention center for at the least the first few weeks. However, they said, he now has his own cell in Texas.
More than a hundred students and faculty filled Georgetown University’s Red Square, demanding the release of their teacher and colleague Badar Khan Suri. News4s’s Drew Wilder explains the details.
His attorneys said the real reason he was moved to Texas was to bring the case before a more conservative judge. The attorney, Vishal Agraharkar, accused the government of what’s often called “forum shopping.”
Khan Suri “has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,” DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on X after his arrest.
Yousef, an American citizen who is originally from Gaza, is also a student at Georgetown. Her father, Ahmed Yousef, is a former adviser to now-deceased Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh. In an interview with The New York Times, Ahmed Yousef said he left his position more than a decade ago. He has also been outspoken in his criticism of Hamas.
The U.S. District Attorney’s Office “respectfully declined to comment” when News4 reached out for a statement. The office didn’t say whether it might try to appeal Khan Suri’s release.
The Associated Press and NBC News’ Kimmy Yam and Gary Grumbach contributed to this report.
