The American federal system has been zeroing in on Indian nationals who have been supporting the Palestinian and Hamas propaganda. After Ranjani Srinivasan self-deported from the country post being accused of supporting Hamas, another Indian researcher residing in the US, Badar Khan Suri is likely to be deported for his alleged pro-propaganda over Hamas.
Suri, an India-origin scholar is a researcher with a post-doctoral fellowship at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. He was arrested outside his home in the Rosslyn neighbourhood of Arlington, Virginia, on Monday night, said his lawyer in a lawsuit fighting for his immediate release. He is currently being held in Alexandria, Louisiana, while he waits for his court appearance in immigration court, according to news agency Reuters.
Additionally, Suri’s petition for release stated that he was put in deportation proceedings under a rarely used provision of immigration law that gives the secretary of State the power to deport non-citizens if the secretary determines that their continued presence in the U.S. would threaten foreign policy. His lawyer also argued that he is being punished because of the Palestinian heritage of his wife, Mapheze Saleh — who is a U.S. citizen — and because the government suspects that he and his wife oppose U.S. foreign policy toward Israel. Saleh is a first-year student in the Master of Arts in Arab Studies program at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies as per the website. Further investigation also revealed that she is the daughter of Ahmed Yousef, who served as an adviser for the terrorist organization Hamas under Ismail Haniyeh’s leadership, according to the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis (CAMERA). Saleh herself has served for government agencies of the Hamas regime.
As per the US Department of Homeland Security, Suri is accused of having connections with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, reported Reuters. They also claimed that he spread Hamas propaganda and antisemitism on social media. However, the DHS statement to Fox News, which was later reposted by White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, stated that Secretary of State Marco Rubio decided that Suri’s actions “rendered him deportable.”