Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, was arrested by United States immigration authorities on Monday for allegedly “spreading propaganda” of Palestinian militant group Hamas, Politico reported on Wednesday. He is facing deportation proceedings.

The agents of the Department of Homeland Security told Suri that his visa had been revoked, according to a lawsuit filed by the academic’s lawyer challenging the detention.

The petition says that Suri is facing deportation proceedings under a provision of the US immigration law that the Donald Trump administration has used in the Mahmoud Khalil case, Politico reported.

The rarely used provision gives the US secretary of state the power to deport non-citizens if the administration determines that their presence in the US poses a threat to the country’s foreign policy.

Khalil, a former Columbia University student of Palestinian origin, was arrested on March 8. He had participated in pro-Palestine protests on campus last year. His green card was revoked. A federal judge, however, stayed Khalil’s deportation.

A green card, officially known as a Permanent Resident Card, allows an individual to stay and work permanently in the US.

Suri’s petition contends that he does not have a criminal record and has not been charged with a crime.

Hassan Ahmad, the lawyer representing Suri, argued that the Indian academic was being punished because his wife, a US citizen, is of Palestinian origin and because the Trump administration suspects that the couple opposes American foreign policy towards Israel, Politico reported.

Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, has been alleged to have “ties with Hamas”, the petition was quoted as saying.

The homeland security department said that Suri was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism” on social media. “Suri has close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas,” a Fox News reporter quoted the department as saying in a statement.

Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation in the US.

The department did not provide details of the activities Suri was allegedly involved in.

The secretary of state issued a determination on Saturday that Suri’s activities rendered him deportable under provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the statement was quoted as saying.

Suri is a postdoctoral fellow at the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, which is part of Georgetown University’s foreign service school. He completed his PhD in peace and conflict studies at New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university in 2020.

Georgetown University said that it was not aware of Suri having engaged in illegal activities and that it had not provided a reason for his detention.

“We support our community members’ rights to free and open inquiry, deliberation and debate, even if the underlying ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable,” Politico quoted the university spokesperson as saying. “We expect the legal system to adjudicate this case fairly.”

The Indian citizen was granted the visa to conduct his doctoral research on peacebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan, CBS News quoted the university as saying.

His arrest came amid increased scrutiny of foreign students by the Trump administration following pro-Palestine protests on college campuses in the US. Protest encampments against Israel’s war on Gaza have been erected in several other universities in the US since late 2023.

On Friday, the homeland security department said that Indian doctoral student Ranjani Srinivasan, whose visa was revoked for allegedly supporting Hamas, had “self-deported” from the US.

The department alleged that Srinivasan was “involved in activities supporting Hamas”.

The homeland security department did not provide details of the activities Srinivasan was allegedly involved in.

Srinivasan said that she was not an activist or part of groups that organised protests at Columbia University. She told The New York Times that she was “surprised” at being a “person of interest” for the Trump administration.

On Friday, the homeland security department said that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement had arrested a Palestinian student, Leqaa Kordia, for overstaying her expired student visa.

The same day, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington was likely to revoke visas of more students in the coming days and Vice President JD Vance contended that a green card holder did not have an “indefinite right” to be in the country.