Federal agents detained a Georgetown University researcher for, in part, having social media posts that allegedly promoted interests against U.S. foreign policy.
A U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson said the researcher, Badar Khan Suri — an Indian citizen who resides in the United States legally under a J-1 non-immigrant visa for researchers — was “deportable” because of his social media speech.
“Suri was a foreign exchange student at Georgetown University actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” the spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, wrote.
DHS has yet to provide evidence to support this claim.
Khan Suri’s posts on social media frequently express support for Palestine, especially since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Israel’s subsequent invasion of Gaza. Khan Suri has never openly advocated breaking U.S. law, according to an analysis The Hoya conducted of posts in his name on X, formerly known as Twitter.
David Cole, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center who specializes in free speech law, said the First Amendment requires that the government only limit speech when it is “intended and likely to incite imminent lawless action.”
“As far as I know there is no such showing (or even argument) with respect to Mr. Suri’s speech,” Cole wrote to The Hoya. “The government cannot punish people for mere speech by claiming that it poses a threat to national security.”
Frederick Lawrence, a lecturer at the Law Center, said that, while facts of the case are still emerging, Khan Suri’s case rests in part on whether the social media posts can be considered lawless speech.
“What we’re talking about here is the very particular case of whether someone can be separated from the country, removed from the country because of expressing views,” Lawrence told The Hoya. “If that’s what’s involved, the question has to be: ‘Does that expression itself constitute lawless activity?’ Otherwise, it does not provide grounds for any kind of sanction.”
Many of Khan Suri’s posts criticize Israel’s response to Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attacks, accusing Israel of targeting Palestinian citizens to drive them out of Gaza.
“Israel is bombing hospitals in Gaza to turn the land inhabitable, in order to build the case for making Palestinians in Gaza think of migrating to the Sinai desert,” Khan Suri wrote on X on Oct. 19, 2023. “Because tens of thousands of Palestinians would need these services which won’t exist. This is mockery of Intl law.”
Khan Suri has also been publicly critical of foreign governments’ support for Israel, expressing opposition to policies from his home country of India as well as the European Union.
Khan Suri criticized the Indian government for supplying weapons to Israel in a quote-tweet of a video of a missile seemingly tagged with “Made in India.”
“From being an ally of Palestinians, to enabler if a genocide,” Khan Suri wrote June 6, 2024. “What a disgrace for Made in India, to supply missiles to Israel so that Palestinian children can be butchered. Change of values for blood money. Shame.”
Khan Suri also accused European leaders of hypocrisy for their opposition to Russian military action in Ukraine but not Israeli action in Gaza and the West Bank.
“Hypocrisy of European leaders, what Israel pays them?” Khan Suri wrote Oct. 12, 2023, in a since-removed post, quote-tweeting Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission. “Where is their moral compass?”
Cole said citizenship status does not affect the right to free speech and said the government is targeting Khan Suri for speech that opposes the foreign policy goals of President Donald Trump’s administration.
“The First Amendment precludes the government from punishing anyone, citizen or foreign national, on that basis,” Cole wrote.
Lawrence said he fears Khan Suri’s detainment will create a chilling effect on political speech.
“A chilling effect not just on the individual target of administrative action, but on other citizens and other people in this country legally, who would then be concerned about whether they are permitted to express themselves,” Lawrence said. “The right to express one’s opinions, one’s views, especially one’s political views, has been part of the very fabric of this country since our founding.”