The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) March 17 detainment of Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri is nothing short of an attack on free speech.
Khan Suri, a researcher at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) in the United States legally on a visa for researchers, remains detained at an immigration center in Alexandria, La. The DHS has claimed that Khan Suri was detained for “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist” and “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media,” but has produced no evidence suggesting the allegations are true.
Khan Suri’s speech on the Israel-Hamas war should not matter — no matter what the content of his speech, disputing the standpoint and actions of the federal government should not and cannot legally be grounds for his detainment. Rather, the Editorial Board believes, the Trump administration is harnessing expression to purge their opponents’ political discourse.
Indeed, Khan Suri’s arrest comes amid a broader Trump administration crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism. His detention follows the deportation of a Brown University professor and the recent arrest and detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist at Columbia University and legal U.S. permanent resident.
The Editorial Board strongly calls on Georgetown University — the administration, faculty and students alike — to firmly defend both Khan Suri and every member of our community’s right to free speech. Far from being an isolated case, our community must recognize that this event reflects a larger, coordinated push to silence dissenting voices and enforce alignment with the Trump administration’s views.
At its core, Khan Suri’s detainment challenges the idea that the “land of the free” is truly free. While many of Khan Suri’s social media posts demonstrate pro-Palestine stances, The Hoya’s analysis of his current social media posts has found that Khan Suri has not advocated breaking U.S. law.
Georgetown must address this situation with the urgency and severity it requires to truly appreciate the dangers our community is facing. Only then can the university take the steps necessary to protect and defend students’, faculty members’ and staff members’ rights to free speech.
Though U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ordered a stay on Khan Suri’s deportation March 20, this does not relieve Georgetown of its obligation to defend our community and support Khan Suri.
The university must first support Khan Suri and his wife, a Georgetown graduate student. In whatever capacity is needed — whether it be financial, professional or personal — the university must stand by them in all the costs and hardships they are currently facing and those that are yet to come.
It must also ensure students are fully informed about Khan Suri’s detainment. Thus far, the university administration’s engagement with students on the issue has been disappointingly limited: On March 19, two days after DHS arrested Khan Suri, School of Foreign Service (SFS) Dean Joel Hellman sent an email to SFS faculty and staff notifying them of Suri’s detainment. Only the next day, March 20, did Dean Hellman forward this same email to the SFS student body alone. The rest of Georgetown’s students and faculty received this information through an email biweekly newsletter, “Bulldog Bulletin,” buried in the subject line, “Survey Deadline Approaching, Summer Housing and More.”
The university’s failure to address the entire Georgetown community about the gravity of Khan Suri’s situation is unacceptable. To treat this infringement on Hoyas’ freedom of speech as another mere update shunted into a newsletter is incredibly discouraging.
Finally, the university must take preemptive steps to protect the rest of our community’s right to free speech. Informing students and faculty of measures they can take to protect themselves and further providing these protections is imperative.
While much of the responsibility for protecting Georgetown community members’ right to free speech rests on the shoulders of the university, it is integral students do not sit idly by but rather play an active role.
Students, whether you agree or disagree with Khan Suri’s beliefs, we must fight for our right to say what we believe — the most fundamental of American and human rights. Stay informed about Khan Suri’s situation and ensure others do too. Just as important — if not more — be vocal.
To every member of the Georgetown community, the Editorial Board implores you to recognize the stakes of this situation — not only for Khan Suri, but for us all.