The ruling follows weeks of legal debate over whether the detention was a justified immigration action or unconstitutional retaliation.
A federal judge on May 13 ordered the immediate release of Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri, whom the Trump administration accused of having ties to the Hamas terrorist group.
The decision,
issued by U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles in Virginia on May 14, allows Suri—an Indian national residing in the United States on a student visa—to return to Virginia while his legal challenge against the government proceeds. He spent nearly two months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody.
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” Suri told reporters after walking out of a detention facility in Alvarado, about 40 miles southwest of Dallas. “It took two months, but I’m extremely thankful that finally I’m free.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had accused Suri of spreading pro-Hamas propaganda and anti-Semitic messages online. DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin
said in March that Suri had “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist,” and that Secretary of State Marco Rubio had issued a determination to cancel Suri’s visa. In court, Trump administration lawyers argued that Suri should not be released as he posed a threat to the community and was a flight risk.
Suri’s lawyers argued in a habeas corpus
petition filed on March 18 that the stated basis for his arrest was a pretext for a Trump administration crackdown on academics and activists who have criticized U.S. support for Israel’s military actions in Gaza. While the petition has not been publicly released, a copy
obtained by The Georgetown Voice and related
court filings characterize government actions against Suri as arbitrary and capricious, and as constituting a violation of his First Amendment right to free speech and Fifth Amendment right to due process.
During court proceedings, Suri’s attorneys argued that his detention was punitive and meant to chill free speech. Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, hailed the court’s decision.
“Hearing the judge’s words brought tears to my eyes,” Saleh, a U.S. citizen,
said in a statement released by ACLU of Virginia, adding that “speaking out” about what’s happening in Gaza “is not a crime.”
Beyond citing “reasons stated in open court,” the judge’s order gives no details about the justification for her decision. However, a
report on the May 14 court hearing by The Georgetown Voice indicates that the judge said during the proceedings that the Trump administration failed to provide sufficient evidence to back its claims in support of Suri’s detention.
According to a May 6
filing, the judge had already rejected the Trump administration’s attempt to dismiss Suri’s habeas case or transfer it to Texas, where he was ultimately detained after being moved through five ICE facilities across three states in four days. In that order, Giles sharply criticized what she described as an apparent effort by the government to “forum shop” by rapidly relocating Suri, thereby making it harder for his attorneys to file legal challenges.
At the time the petition was filed in the Eastern District of Virginia, Suri’s legal team did not know where he was being held—only that he had been arrested in Virginia and told he would be transferred to a facility in Farmville, Virginia, per the May 6 filing. Instead, he was flown to Louisiana and then Texas, where he was allegedly housed in overcrowded conditions, issued used clothing, and denied religious accommodations during Ramadan,
according to the ACLU.
A request for comment on the ruling sent to DHS was not immediately returned.
Suri’s next immigration hearing is scheduled for June 3 in Texas, where the government is expected to continue its efforts to deport him.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
