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An Indian scholar detained during Donald Trump’s sweeping crackdown on foreign students nearly two months ago has been released from an immigration centre in Texas.
Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, was freed on Wednesday following a federal judge's ruling.
He was arrested by immigration authorities in March for allegedly “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media”.
Mr Suri will go home to his family in Virginia while he awaits the outcome of his petition against the Trump administration for wrongful arrest and detention in violation of the First Amendment and other constitutional rights. “Justice delayed is justice denied," Mr Suri told reporters after his release from a detention facility near Dallas. "It took two months but I am extremely thankful that finally I'm free."
Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, who had previously barred Mr Suri's deportation, ordered his release on personal recognisance to Virginia from detention in Texas, according to a court filing.
He is not to be detained again without a 48-hour notice to the court and his lawyers.
The judge said that she was releasing Mr Suri because she felt he had substantial constitutional claims against the Trump administration. She also considered the needs of his family and said she did not believe he was a danger to the community.
"Speech regarding the conflict there and opposing Israel's military campaign is likely protected political speech," the judge said. "And thus he was likely engaging in protected speech."
She ruled that "the First Amendment does not distinguish between citizens and noncitizens”.
Mr Suri is on a student visa and is married to an American citizen. Secretary of state Marco Rubio revoked his visa in March, citing potential harm to American foreign relations, according to The Washington Post.
In a statement on Wednesday, Mr Suri's wife, Mapheze Saleh, said the ruling brought her to tears. "I truly wish I could give her a heartfelt hug from me and from my three children, who long every day to see their father again," she said, referring to the judge, according to Reuters.
Mr Suri arrived in the US in 2022 on a J-1 visa and had been working at Georgetown as a visiting scholar and postdoctoral fellow.
He was arrested by masked, plainclothes officers on the evening of 17 March outside his apartment in Arlington, Virginia, put on a plane to Louisiana and later to the detention centre in Texas.
The Trump administration said it revoked Mr Suri's visa because of his social media posts and his wife's connection to Gaza.
Ms Saleh, a Palestinian American, has been targeted because her father worked with the Hamas government in Gaza for over a decade, but before the group attacked Israel in 2023, according to his lawyers.
Other similarly detained foreign students like Mohsen Mahdawi and Rümeysa Öztürk have also been released by the courts in recent weeks. "Today’s ruling adds to mounting losses for the Trump administration," the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement.
English (US) ·