130+ Jewish Georgetown Community Members Oppose Attempted Deportation of Scholar Badar Khan Suri
"Making Jews the face of this autocratic initiative feeds antisemitic conspiracy theories and is dangerous for Jews, on campuses and beyond," says the public statement.
Over 130 Jewish Georgetown University alumni, students, faculty, and staff on Friday collectively spoke out against the Trump administration's attempt to deport postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri and declared that "the growing wave of politically motivated campus deportation efforts is an authoritarian move that harms the entire campus community."
Khan Suri, an Indian national, was abducted by masked Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents outside his home in Virginia last month—a scene similar to the arrests of other foreign students who have supported Palestinian rights or criticized the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, which experts across the globe condemn as genocide.
"Despite having a valid visa, the agents detained Dr. Khan Suri and rapidly transferred him to a detention center in Louisiana and then Texas," explains Friday's joint statement. "Dr. Khan Suri is a valued member of the Georgetown community. In addition to the impact this has had on him, these events have terrified his students and colleagues, his wife, three young children, and parents, and his broader family and friends."
The statement says that "the political arrest, detention, and attempted deportation of Dr. Khan Suri and others across the U.S., including Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Tufts University Ph.D. candidate Rumeysa Ozturk, as well as the revocation of hundreds of student and work visas, are transgressions of civil liberties by the Trump administration and DHS that are commonly seen under authoritarian governments. This should alarm us all."
"The Trump administration is waging attacks on our spaces of learning, including by politically targeting, harassing, detaining and attempting to deport Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, international, and immigrant community members, all while claiming to do so in the name of Jewish safety," the statement continues, citing a White House social media post.
President Donald Trump "is weaponizing Jewish identity, faith, and fears of antisemitism as a smokescreen for his authoritarian agenda, further damaging the campus climate for everyone," the statement asserts. "Making Jews the face of this autocratic initiative feeds antisemitic conspiracy theories and is dangerous for Jews, on campuses and beyond. For multiple reasons, it is crucial that we as Jewish community members at Georgetown speak out and act against this, and we encourage Jews on and off campuses everywhere to do the same."
The statement calls for the immediate release of all who have been "unjustly detained" and an end to "all authoritarian actions" against campuses. It also urges elected officials as well as Jewish community leaders and institutions, including Hillel and the Anti-Defamation League, "to clearly and officially condemn and oppose these acts" by the federal government.
The statement—set to be published by the campus newspaper, The Hoya—also endorses the Georgetown administration's Jesuit commitment to "build an environment where all members of our community are free to express their thoughts" and that recognizes "the human dignity of all," and urges the university's leaders "to continue and strengthen these efforts."
Asked about the statement by NPR, DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin responded, "Pretty absurd mental gymnastics to believe that revoking visas of individuals who glorify and support terrorists, harass Jews, and do the bidding of organizations that relish the killing of Americans and Jews, is in fact, making Jewish students less safe."
This is so telling. A bunch of Jewish students and faculty at Georgetown signed a letter protesting the arrest and detention of scholar Badar Khan Suri, saying it makes Jews less safe. The Trump administration responded saying, in short, "We know better than Jews on campus what makes Jews safe."
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— Joel S. (@joelhs.bsky.social) April 11, 2025 at 12:41 PM
The school is maintaining an official webpage for U.S. immigration policy and regulatory updates. The latest post, from Wednesday, states: "We are aware of approximately six community members who have had their immigration status terminated. The reasons given for such terminations are limited, and Georgetown University was not informed of them by the government."
For The Hoya's Thursday reporting on that update, the newspaper spoke with Nader Hashemi, director of the School of Foreign Service's Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, where Khan Suri was a postdoctoral researcher.
"Six lives have effectively been destroyed," Hashemi said. "I hope the university will live up to its pledges to support students in this difficult moment, particularly international students who've been affected."
"I think the university's statements and the communication has been very good so far," Hashemi added. "I think most faculty and students are basically happy with what the university has been doing, and I hope the university will continue to support students who have been unjustly and illegally targeted by this authoritarian regime that's empowered now in Washington."
The newspaper
reported Friday that students with a new protest group, the GU Student Coalition Against Repression, "planned to stage a sit-in in Healy Hall but moved outside the gates after Georgetown University Police Department (GUPD) officers forcibly removed them from Healy." The action was timed to coincide with the weekend during which potential students, admitted for the following academic year, visit campus.
