A US federal judge has asked the government to explain why an Indian academic, Dr Badar Khan Suri, was suddenly moved between detention centres after his arrest, even though his deportation had been temporarily blocked.
As per reports, judge Patricia Tolliver Giles gave government lawyers just one day to respond and raised serious questions about why Suri was taken from a detention facility in Virginia, where he lived, to centres in Louisiana and Texas.
She asked whether it was normal to move someone like that in the middle of the night and whether overcrowding was really the reason, as the government claimed. In Virginia, Suri had a room to himself, but in Texas, he has only been given a cot in a TV room.
Dr Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University in Washington, was arrested in March. US immigration authorities want to deport him, claiming that he has links to Hamas, which is considered a terrorist group by the US government.
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Suri has a PhD from Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi and was teaching a course on majoritarianism and minority rights in South Asia.
He is married to a US citizen, Mapheze Saleh. Her father, Ahmed Yousef, was once an adviser to the Hamas-led administration in Gaza, and the US government is using this as part of its argument that Suri is connected to Hamas.
A Homeland Security official also accused Suri of sharing Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media.
Suri’s lawyers are now fighting to have him brought back to Virginia and to stop his deportation. They are worried that if the case is handled in Texas, where he is currently being held, he could be deported more quickly, as Texas courts are seen as more conservative and may support the government’s position.
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There has been strong public support for Suri. Some Jewish religious leaders have written letters backing him, and when his case was being heard in Alexandria, Virginia, supporters held a demonstration outside the court. Democratic Representative Don Beyer spoke at the protest and called the situation “Kafkaesque”, saying that Suri had been taken without charges or explanation.
His case comes at a time when the US is dealing with several such deportation matters.
Just recently, a judge in Vermont ordered the release of a Palestinian student with a green card who led an anti-Israel protest at Columbia University. That student will remain in the US while his case is reviewed.
