A United States judge on Thursday blocked the Donald Trump administration from deporting Indian academic Badar Khan Suri, who was arrested for allegedly “spreading propaganda” of Palestinian militant group Hamas, ABC News reported.

Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles of the Eastern District of Virginia Court issued an order staying Suri’s deportation from the US “unless and until the court issues a contrary order”.

Suri was held by immigration authorities on Monday. He was informed that his visa had been revoked, according to a lawsuit filed by the researcher’s lawyer challenging the detention.

The Department of Homeland Security has alleged 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 on Wednesday.

Hamas is designated as a terrorist organisation in the US.

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

Hassan Ahmad, the lawyer representing Suri, had argued that the Indian researcher 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 petition contended that the academic does not have a criminal record and had not been charged with a crime.

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.

Suri’s petition had also said that he was facing deportation proceedings under a provision of the US immigration law that the 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 His green card was revoked.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.

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

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.

Suri’s 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 March 14, the homeland security department said that Indian doctoral student Ranjani Srinivasan at Columbia University, whose visa was revoked for allegedly supporting Hamas, had “self-deported” from the US.

Srinivasan was “involved in activities supporting Hamas”, the department alleged. But it did not provide details of the activities the doctoral student 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.