Permanent residents in the U.S. have faced detention and deportation while tourists have been turned away under the new immigration regime taking shape under the Trump administration.
Immigration officials face accusations that they have targeted individuals because of their political opinions or because they have taken part in political activities, such as protests or demonstrations.
Georgetown University graduate student Badar Khan Suri, originally from India, was detained last Monday night at his home in Arlington, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. Masked agents said his student visa had been revoked.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said Suri has been accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” as well as having “close connections to a known or suspected terrorist, who is a senior advisor to Hamas.”
On Thursday, a judge blocked the Trump administration from deporting him as his legal challenge against his arrest plays out.
A French researcher, whose name has not been revealed, was reportedly stopped from entering the U.S. earlier in March because of text messages criticizing the Trump administration’s academic research policies.
The scientist was on his way to a conference close to Houston at the time, according to Le Monde.
The French minister of higher education and research, Philippe Baptiste, said in a statement that “Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values that we will continue to proudly uphold. I will defend the right of all French researchers to be faithful to them while respecting the law.”
Baptiste took to X to say that he had asked for an emergency meeting with other European ministers to establish a plan to defend academic freedom.
“Europe must rise to the occasion to protect research and welcome the talents who can contribute to its success,” he said.
It was reported that the researcher had been blocked because of text messages found on his phone criticizing the Trump administration’s policies on research. The Department of Homeland Security denied this, saying the man was found to have “confidential” data from a U.S. lab.
Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, was detained and deported this month as she arrived back in the U.S. at an airport in Boston. A DHS spokesperson said she went to Beirut to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, the late leader of Hezbollah.
Alawieh, who specializes in kidney medicine, was previously on a J-1 visa for “exchange students,” but Brown University subsequently sponsored her H-1B visa, a complaint states.
Officers “determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” according to a filing from Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sady.
