About 150 members of the Georgetown University community rallied in support of Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown postdoctoral fellow detained by federal immigration services, at a student-organized protest March 23.

Attendees urged the university to demand Khan Suri’s release, block federal immigration agents from campus and divest from corporations with ties to the Israeli military. Protesters rallied outside Healy Hall before marching around campus with stops at Red Square and outside Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall. 

Agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) detained Khan Suri, a postdoctoral fellow at the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) living legally in the United States with a research visa, March 17. According to DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, DHS detained Khan Suri over alleged connections to Hamas leadership and social media posts described as “Hamas propaganda.”

Khan Suri is currently in DHS custody at a detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, according to a federal online locator of detainees. Speakers at the rally — including both Georgetown students and outside organizers from the Washington, D.C.-area chapters of the student pro-Palestinian organizations Students for Justice in Palestine and Palestinian Youth Movement — encouraged community members to sign a petition demanding his release. 

Rally attendee Fiona Naughton (SFS ’26) said the Georgetown community must respond to Khan Suri’s detention by coming together in support of immigrant rights and free speech.

“I came out here today because there’s been a gross violation of human rights, and a member of our community has been abducted by the federal government,” Naughton told The Hoya. “I think that it’s absolutely imperative that everyone in this community comes out to stand, to advocate for the ability to speak freely, for political expression and, first and foremost, to support our community member who was abducted by the Department of Homeland Security.”

Norman Francis Jr. (COL ’20), a Georgetown admissions officer and current Georgetown law student who attended the rally, said in a statement on behalf of rally organizers that Khan Suri is a meaningful member of the Georgetown community. 

“He’s a loving father, a loving husband, a distinguished faculty member for this prestigious university who specializes in peace and conflict studies, someone who cares deeply about human rights, dignity, peace and safety for all people,” Francis told The Hoya. “Honestly, it’s ridiculous what happened because ICE agents came in the night, took him captive, took him away from his wife and children and called him away to an unknown location. It’s every family’s worst nightmare.”

Adding onto the prepared statement, Francis said the protesters gathered to support Khan Suri and condemn his detention.

“One of the things we’re calling for is accountability,” Francis said. “Everyone who cares about human rights and our constitutional rights needs to speak up and call for his immediate release. He has every right to be here to live with safety and freedom, and today, it’s him, but tomorrow it could be you or anybody that we know.”

Khan Suri’s detention comes amid a broader crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism. On March 8, federal immigration officers detained Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent activist during pro-Palestine student protests at Columbia University last spring and lawful U.S. permanent resident, claiming he supported Hamas and engaged in antisemitism. 

Rally attendee Ariana Hameed (CAS ’26) said Georgetown must protect its community from potential federal threats of deportation.

“This isn’t just limited to Dr. Suri,” Hameed told The Hoya. “We know that week by week, Khalil, other citizens, other students, other professors, are being targeted for opposing genocide and threatened with deportation.” 

“This is part of a wider fascist crackdown by the federal government, policies of mass deportation, policies of political repression,” Hameed added. “We think it is important that our community members come out and tell the university that we must support our vulnerable population.”

Medea Benjamin, an anti-war activist from the nonprofit Code Pink, said she attended the rally to fight against political repression.

“I feel that if we don’t come out and protest, we’re consenting because silence is complicity, and I also wanted to support the students at Georgetown,” Benjamin told The Hoya. “I’m just heartbroken at how much repression there has been against students all over this country, and students are really the moral compass of our nation.”

“In my lifetime, I don’t remember this kind of repression simply for free speech,” Benjamin added. “It really sets a terrible path for our country.”

The protestors also called on Georgetown to declare itself a “sanctuary campus” and prevent DHS or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers from entering university property, chanting during the rally, “ICE off our campus now. ICE has no place in our halls.” 

Hameed said protesters want the university to refuse to cooperate with law enforcement, including the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and ICE, on issues relating to immigration.

“We are asking that Georgetown University refuse to comply with monitoring efforts, surveilling efforts, efforts to deport its citizens and students based on political beliefs and citizenship status and refuse entry by DHS, ICE, MPD and other federal officers to materially support the most vulnerable communities,” Hameed said.

A university spokesperson said any law enforcement agency, including ICE and MPD, require warrants to be present on campus.

“We are not aware of any enforcement activity on campus at this time,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya. “Georgetown has a clear protocol in place ensuring that any law enforcement actions on campus adhere to due process, including the requirement of a warrant or subpoena when necessary.”

As in past pro-Palestinian student protests, speakers also called for Georgetown to divest from its investments in companies such as Amazon and Microsoft, which hold contracts with the Israeli military, with protestors chanting, “Georgetown, Georgetown, you can’t hide, you are funding genocide.”

A media liaison for the rally’s organizers, an unofficial coalition of Georgetown community members, said a goal of the rally was to call on the university to protect its students and divest from companies affiliated with Israeli military contracts.

“We are also demanding full divestment from entities connected to the ongoing genocide in Palestine including Alphabet, Amazon, and Microsoft, and we are also demanding the release of our peer, Dr. Badar Khan,” the liaison told The Hoya. “Our university is complicit in an ongoing genocide in Palestine and that they are not protecting students from deportation and from being possibly disappeared by the U.S. government.”

The university has rejected previous calls to divest, instead telling community members to propose changes to the university’s financial strategy to its Committee on Investments and Social Responsibility, which recommends socially responsible investments to the university.

Naughton said Georgetown community members must continue to stand against attacks on free speech. 

“This is not just an isolated incident, it’s happening around the country, and also it represents just a gross violation of human rights,” Naughton said. “If it can happen to Dr. Suri, it can happen to any of us, and I think that now more than ever, we have to show up in support of our non-citizen community members. 

“Georgetown has to take a stand, and that’s why we’re here today,” Naughton added.