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Appeals Court Rejects Trump Administration's Efforts to Re-Detain Researcher Over Israel Criticism

Jeff Charles
Jeff Charles  |  July 24, 2026 2:15 PM

A U.S. appeals court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s effort to re-detain Badar Khan Suri, a Georgetown University postdoctoral researcher from India known for his pro-Palestinian advocacy. 

Reuters reported that the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ruled that federal immigration law did not bar a lower-court judge from ordering Suri’s release. The court found that Suri’s claims of violations to his due process and free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution could be heard in federal court. 

Suri remains free as his immigration case proceeds. The case began when the researcher was detained by federal authorities over his criticism of the Israeli effort to eliminate Hamas in the Gaza Strip after the terrorist group slaughtered over 1,000 Israelis on October 7, 2023.

The majority opinion focused on the distinction between detention challenges and removal proceedings. Judge DeAndrea Benjamin wrote for the majority: “Whether the Government has chosen to detain Suri to punish his speech and associations and to chill and deter future speech, and whether it constitutionally may do so, are different questions from whether the Government has and may seek to remove Suri because of his speech and associations.” 

The panel also rejected a request to transfer the case from Virginia to Texas and upheld the lower court’s release order. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III dissented, describing the ruling as “a loss for the immigration system Congress carefully designed.”

The decision conflicts with rulings from other appeals courts in similar cases involving pro-Palestinian activists.

Badar Khan Suri is an Indian national who held a J-1 exchange visa while working as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He lived in Rosslyn, Virginia, with his wife, a U.S. citizen of Palestinian heritage, and their three children. 

According to The Hoya, immigration officers detained Suri outside his home on March 17, 2025, under a rarely used provision of immigration law that allows removal of noncitizens whose presence is seen as having adverse foreign policy consequences. Officials shuffled him through several facilities in Virginia before transferring him to a detention center in Texas, where he was held for almost two months.

The authorities pointed to his social media activity supporting the Palestinians and opposing Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, along with posts by conservative groups about his academic work. Officials also noted his family connection through his wife to her father, a former Hamas official who left the group more than a decade earlier.

However, Suri himself has never explicitly expressed direct support for Hamas.

Suri challenged his detention through a habeas corpus petition in federal district court in Virginia, arguing his treatment was retaliatory and unconstitutional. In May 2025, U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ordered his release on bail and blocked his immediate removal. The Trump administration appealed and sought to re-detain him while the case continued.

Suri celebrated the ruling. “Today reaffirms my faith that an independent judiciary remains the truest guardian of liberty, due process, and the rule of law,” he said. “I am profoundly grateful to the judges who upheld these constitutional principles and gave my case the careful, deliberate consideration it deserved. I remain, as ever, committed to the pursuit of justice through lawful and peaceful means.”