One of the lawyers for formerly detained Georgetown University postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri argued the detainment was an overreach of executive power at a May 14 event.
Hassan Ahmad, one of Khan Suri’s lawyers, and Nader Hashemi, the director of Georgetown’s Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), explained the significance of the case following today’s order to release Khan Suri. Federal judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ordered Khan Suri’s release today on a zero-dollar bond from a detention center in Texas as he awaits immigration proceedings.
Ahmad said Tolliver Giles was right to order Khan Suri be released.
“She did the right thing by saying that the executive branch does not have the authority to simply disappear people whenever they damn well please,” Ahmad said at the event. “The executive branch does not have the authority to do so without having to show their math, without having to show what reason they have for it, and that due process still exists.”
Federal immigration officers detained Khan Suri March 17 after his visa was revoked for alleged “Hamas propaganda” and connections to Hamas leadership. Tolliver Giles ordered his immediate release today, finding Khan Suri was not a flight risk or a danger to the community. Lawyers with the legal nonprofit American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which helped represent his case, facilitated Khan Suri’s release shortly after the ruling.
Ahmad said the legal principle of habeas corpus, which allows a detained individual to allege their detainment is unlawful and Khan Suri invoked March 18, is rooted in longstanding U.S. legal tradition.
“Habeas corpus is one of the most ancient forms of relief, one of the most ancient writs,” Ahmad said. “It’s called the Great Writ because it’s so fundamental to the concept of liberty and a check on executive power. Any time you want to challenge the legality of your detention, being detained by a state, being detained by the police, the writ of habeas corpus is what you’re going to turn to, and that was my immediate thought the day that Bader Khan Suri was arrested.”
Ahmad said Khan Suri’s case and those of other detained academics and students represent an “attack” on U.S. citizens’ rights and values.
“Cases like this make us go back and think about what actually matters to us, what our core values are, what matters to us as Americans, what matters to us as just rational and compassionate human beings,” Ahmad said. “The ability of a government or a power to be able to come and whisk you away for something you posted on social media should shock the conscience of all of us.”
“It is as pure an attack on free speech as you could possibly imagine, there’s just no other side to it,” Ahmad added.
In her ruling, Tolliver Giles said continuing Khan Suri’s detention would have a chilling effect on free speech, where people choose not to exercise free speech due to fear of legal repercussions.
Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who led several pro-Palestine demonstrations, was detained based on his activism, differing from Khan Suri’s detainment. In Khan Suri’s case, the government said he was “deportable” based in part on his social media speech, though the government did not provide evidence to support this claim.
Ahmad said Khan Suri questioned his detention when they first met.
“As I was about to leave, he told me, ‘I was who they wanted me to be. I had my head down in my books, and I didn’t say anything. I was quiet. Then they did all this to me. Now, why should I be quiet?’” Ahmad said.
Looking toward Khan Suri’s return, Hashemi said Khan Suri’s loss of his visa could have implications for his work at Georgetown.
“I think one of the big questions now that Badar is out of prison is: Can he reconstitute his status as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown? Can he continue to teach?” Hashemi said at the event. “So now he’s in this limbo state where he’s not technically a holder of a valid visa, which would then pose a problem for hiring.”
“As far as I know, he can still come to campus. He can still access his office,” Hashemi added. “There’s no reason why he can’t speak in classes. There’s no reason why he can’t participate in seminars. But there is this question about his legal status as a Georgetown employee, which has to be somehow determined at this moment.”
Ahmad said the legal team hopes to gain more information from the government as Khan Suri’s immigration case proceeds, hoping to obtain what U.S. Department of Justice lawyers referred to as the “Rubio determination” — a declaration by Secretary of State Marco Rubio that would allegedly sanction Khan Suri’s deportation but that has not been presented to the court.
“We’re going to try to force them to turn over any and all information, more than just the so-called ‘Rubio determination,’ and try to get discovery and try to get information about why this happened,” Ahmad told The Hoya. “Fortunately, now that he’ll be out of jail, it’s a lot easier to fight the case.”
Ahmad said Khan Suri’s case illuminates the importance of collective action and fundamental ideals in the United States.
“We don’t have to agree on everything, but we do have to agree on some certain core values and certain core principles,” Ahmad said at the event. “And I would hope that we all want to live in a country where the government can’t whisk you up in the middle of the night away from your family and community.”
“The thing about fascism and the thing about authoritarianism is that its power is a facade,” Ahmad added. “You don’t have any real power. We’ve always had it. The true power has always been with us, but we have to use it.”
