Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri describes his nearly two-month detention as “a nightmare, like a hell.”
Suri, an Indian national, was arrested in March by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents while walking toward his Virginia home.
“I saw something that is not regular: Oldish, blackish, unmarked car was just riding parallel to me in a very dangerous kind of situation where I thought that it may hit me,” Suri said, two weeks after a federal judge ordered his release from a federal detention center in Texas. “When I was about to reach the door of my building, then it all started. A guy jumped from that car. He was masked, no badges, nothing, no proper uniforms, he asked me, ‘Are you Badar?’ I said ‘yes,’ and then, next thing he said was I’m under arrest. I was totally terrorized, shocked. Why would he say this thing?”
Suri, who has not been charged with a crime, said ICE agents never showed him a warrant. He is due back in court next month as his legal case continues.
The Trump administration has called him a threat to U.S. foreign policy and has accused him of having connections to a senior adviser to Hamas. Suri’s wife is a Palestinian American. Her father, who lives in Gaza, once advised a Hamas political leader.
“So these are mere allegations, nothing, because they didn’t come up with any evidence, any proof in court of law,” Suri said. “Honorable judge kept on asking them. She gave them time to bring something. They didn’t bring anything, so there was no charge against me, so they keep on saying whatever they want to say, but the institution where they should have given any evidence, they were not able to because there was nothing.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
12 questions with Badar Khan Suri
What happened the day you were arrested?
“It was first a regular day. I had a wonderful class with my students. I was fasting because of Ramadan. I was waiting for sunset to break my fast. And then after that, I was returning home, and I reached my building around 9:20, 9:25.
“I saw something that is not regular: Oldish, blackish, unmarked car was just riding parallel to me in a very dangerous kind of situation where I thought that it may hit me. And when I was about to reach the door of my building, then it all started. A guy jumped from that car. He was masked, no badges, nothing, no proper uniforms, he asked me, ‘Are you Badar?’ I said, ‘Yes,’ and then next thing he said was I’m under arrest. I was totally terrorized, shocked. Why would he say this thing?”
Did he put you in the car with him?
“He said, I’m under arrest. And I was able to call my wife, and she came, and I was asking him, like, ‘Why, what have I done?’ He was not showing any arrest warrant or anything if he was saying that I am under arrest. My wife asked, ‘Who are you?’ which agency or whatever.
“There were three cars, then I realized, and some stayed inside. They were all talking all the time. And then he said, ‘Your student visa is revoked.’ I said, ‘I’m not a student, why would you revoke my student visa? I’m not a student. Maybe there’s some confusion. I’m a researcher, I’m a professor.’ He said, ‘No, even that is revoked.’
“Then I asked my wife to bring my passport and bring this document, which says what I am, that I’m a researcher. So she brought it, and by the time she came, they handcuffed me and put me in the car and didn’t let her give those documents of mine to me, and they grabbed them.
“Then they start telling me that someone high at the Secretary of State’s office doesn’t want you to be here, and ‘We will deport you.’ Then I just asked, ‘When?’ He said, Today.’ So this was another shock. So I said, ‘Will my family not know what you are doing to me, and all this stuff?”
What was your experience being held for about two months in facilities in Virginia, Louisiana and Texas?
“Like a nightmare, like a hell. It was like injustice when you didn’t commit anything wrong, no crime, nothing when you are still asking why you are doing this and they were not able to tell why they were doing this. And even in the court, they were not able to show anything.
“The way in an authoritarian regime, they were behaving like that. There were always a dehumanizing experience. Those shackles would come up in your wrist, in your ankles, on your body. They will not care that I was fasting. They will put me in a cell on the floor. And the first time I saw a bathroom where there was a camera over my head. And then have to sleep on the floor. Then from there, after a few hours, they took me to another facility without any food for sure. And then, there they will keep me in a very cold cell, very small cell for six, seven hours, and they will not remove these chains from my leg.
“And, I kept on asking, ‘May I call my wife?’ They would just not reply as if only I can see them and they cannot see me. It was like this. So I was in extreme pain, indignation, and eight to 10 days, I was never able to talk to my wife. I didn’t know if I have lawyers.
“And then from there, they again put me in a flight. They didn’t tell me where it was going and then ultimately, we landed up somewhere after three, four hours. Then, I realized that we were in Louisiana.
“After three days of that suffering, that uncertainty, that frustration, they suddenly took me to Texas. Same, chained in a bus. I was all alone in that bus. No food again, same story every time you are transferred to some place, you will not get food. They don’t care. So I got food again at midnight. Literally, I ate it in a bathroom, they put me in a kind of bathroom. And I said, ‘Hey, I cannot eat it there.’ They said ‘No problem, eat it here.’ And I had to eat because I was hungry. They gave me two breads, one cheese and one apple.
“And then somewhere around early morning, 3 a.m. or something, they put me in my place where I would be for six, seven weeks. That was a very shocking thing, because the moment I put one foot inside, people start yelling there because they were saying, ‘There is no space.’ It was like overcrowded, literally maybe a dozen plus, 14, 15 people were lying on the floor and there was no space for me. That’s why they put me in a TV room. The TV would be on for 21 hours in a day. It will turn off between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m.”
What do you make of the Trump administration calling you a threat to U.S. foreign policy?
“So these are mere allegations, nothing, because they didn’t come up with any evidence, any proof in court of law. Honorable judge kept on asking them. She gave them time to bring something. They didn’t bring anything, so there was no charge against me, so they keep on saying whatever they want to say, but the institution where they should have given any evidence, they were not able to because there was nothing.”
Why do you believe you were targeted?
“‘Why me?’ I don’t see me as in any specific context. I just see others, why they picked others.
And if they did it because people were expressing in the universities, the students expressing their free speech rights, then it is protected by the Constitution, First Amendment.”
Did you participate in any pro-Palestinian protests
“No, I don’t remember anything like that because I was always busy in my research. My research is in South Asia. I never did anything.”
Do you question why you were detained?
“They just have this random thought that I may be on foreign policy ground or national security thing, and they brought no evidence for those allegations.”
What will happen next? Is there a chance you could still be deported?
“Only the courts will decide that, judiciary will decide that. The case is in the court. They will decide whatever happens”
Are you afraid of speaking up or speaking out?
“There are certain fears I have. The chilling effect thing. As a human, if I say, though, ‘I don’t have anything, I’m extremely courageous and I’m indifferent to everything.’ No, as a human, I have certain fears, but I will keep on talking whatever is my moral obligation.
“I have to speak for the truth, for the justice, for humanity, for everyone, for everyone, not just one group, one religion. If there is genocide happening in Palestine and I will say there is a genocide happening in Palestine. I will never scare to say that it’s not happening.”
Do you still feel comfortable saying that out loud?
“It’s not about my comfort. Basically, I’m not comfortable. That’s why I say that there is a genocide happening. Who can be comfortable if you see children being torched, being charred, being burned every day for the last 500, 600 days? How can anyone be comfortable?
And not just there, I mean, first there. It’s happening in Ukraine. It’s happening in Africa. It happens everywhere. So wherever it happens, we say that there is wrong happening somewhere in the world.”
Do you want to stay in the U.S.?
“Life is full of challenges. Wherever you go, whatever you do, there will be challenges. One needs to be not bogged down by those challenges. One needs to show character and courage.
So I will continue doing what research I was doing, being in academia. I have no fears as such in my research, in my academic work.”
Does the U.S. feel like home to you after this whole process?
“Whole world is home, even the United States is home, yeah. I have no vengeance, nothing, so it is home. It is my wife’s country.
“She’s a U.S. citizen. The people here are so good. The collegial support I have, my students, my community, average Americans. If administration has done a small wrong to me or big wrong to me, everything should be upside down. I should start hating. I never hate anyone. I only love people because hate is evil. It is extreme. We have to just ignore hate, only love, and bridge the differences. And that’s how we can make the world a better place, and that’s how we can make it better for our students, our kids.”
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Thomas Danielian produced and edited this interview for broadcast with Micaela Rodríguez. Michael Scotto adapted it for the web.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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