The Donald Trump administration detained Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national and postdoctoral fellow, on allegations of spreading antisemitism and having links to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, according to Fox News, which cited the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

Suri, a researcher at Georgetown University in Washington DC, was arrested by federal agents outside his home in Virginia on Monday night after being informed that his visa was being revoked. According to his lawyer, Suri, who is married to an American citizen, is now waiting for a court date in immigration court. Suri’s plea for release states that the Trump administration used a rarely-invoked section of immigration law, which allows the Secretary of State to deport non-citizens considered a threat to U.S. foreign policy. According to the DHS statement obtained by Fox News, Secretary of State Marco Rubio believed that the Indian researcher's actions "rendered him deportable."

Notably, the same provision was used to deport Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student and green card holder, who was accused of leading pro-Palestinian protests last year. Suri's plea also mentions that he has no criminal record and claims he is being targeted because of his wife's Palestinian background, according to Politico. "If an accomplished scholar who focuses on conflict resolution is whom the government decides is bad for foreign policy, then perhaps the problem is with the government, not the scholar," Suri's lawyer told international news agency Reuters.

According to the Georgetown University website, Suri, a former Jamia Millia Islamia student, was teaching "Majoritarianism and Minority Rights in South Asia" and has a PhD in peace and conflict studies from India. This comes just over a week after another Indian student, Ranjani Srinivasan, who was accused of antisemitism, left the country on her own using the CBP Home App after avoiding detention. This comes during the Trump administration's strict crackdown on foreign students who took part in large anti-Israel protests at US university campuses last year.