Appeals panel blocks administration effort to redetain pro-Palestinian Georgetown academic

Separate federal appeals courts have overturned lower rulings freeing pro-Palestinian activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi in recent cases.

ByREUTERS

JULY 24, 2026 08:33

Updated: JULY 24, 2026 08:34

A US appeals court on Thursday turned down an attempt by President Donald Trump's administration to let immigration officials redetain a Georgetown University scholar known for supporting Palestinian rights and criticizing the Israel-Hamas conflict.

A 2-1 panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals held that federal immigration statutes did not prevent a district judge from ordering the release of Badar Khan Suri after reviewing his arguments that the detention infringed on due process and free speech protections in the Constitution.

The Indian national was taken into custody by immigration officers in March 2025 during the Trump administration's push to arrest and remove foreign students involved in pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses.

Two other federal appeals courts have recently reversed lower-court orders that freed pro-Palestinian campus activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, both formerly at Columbia University.

Yet the 4th Circuit panel rejected those courts' view that immigration statutes removed jurisdiction from district judges in such matters, stating that nothing bars review of claims alleging unconstitutional detention even when tied to ongoing removal proceedings.

"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," US Circuit Judge DeAndrea Benjamin wrote for the majority.

The two judges in the majority were named by Democratic presidents. US Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, dissented and described the decision as "a loss for the immigration system Congress carefully designed."

The Department of Homeland Security, which supervises Immigration and Customs Enforcement, offered no comment on the ruling.

Suri lived in Virginia when taken into custody

"Today reaffirms my faith that an independent judiciary remains the truest guardian of liberty, due process, and the rule of law," Suri said in a statement.

At the time of his arrest Suri lived in Virginia with his wife, a Palestinian US citizen. He serves as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown's Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding within the university's School of Foreign Service.

After ICE detained him he was transferred to Texas and released in May 2025 when US District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles found he was likely to prevail in showing the arrest stemmed from retaliation for protected speech.