The Trump administration has agreed to allow Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri to return to his job at the school while litigation continues over efforts to deport him because of his alleged ties to Hamas.
The Justice Department and Suri revealed a settlement Tuesday in court papers that partially resolves a five-month-long legal dispute that arose after masked ICE agents arrested Suri without warning in March outside his Arlington, Virginia, apartment as part of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian academics.
The agreement does not address Suri’s right to remain in the U.S. or his attorneys’ claims that Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s bid to deport Suri violated his First Amendment rights. However, it allows Suri to resume his employment as a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service.
A judge ordered Suri’s release from immigration detention in May amid a wave of legal rebukes for the administration’s targeting of other pro-Palestinian academics, including Columbia University students Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi and Yunseo Chung, as well as Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to permit Suri to remain free while his lawsuit was pending.
Despite his release, immigration court proceedings that could lead to Suri’s deportation continued. In addition, Suri’s civil litigation continued in the Virginia court as he sought the reinstatement of his legal status in a Department of Homeland Security database that tracks immigrant students and researchers permitted into the country. The deal revealed Tuesday will likely obviate the need for a hearing that was set for Friday in federal court in Alexandria over his bid for reinstatement.
ICE had terminated Suri’s record in the system in March, which made it difficult for him to continue his academic work. The termination also extended to his two young children, whose student status in the U.S. was linked to their father’s.
Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, is a U.S. citizen. But her father’s former role advising Hamas leadership figured into the Trump administration’s decision to target Suri.
Under the settlement, the Trump administration has agreed to maintain Suri’s student status unless officials become aware of a “newly discovered, independent legal ground” to take action against him — and give him 21 days notice before acting on it. It also made the reinstatement of his status retroactive to March 18.
Suri and the other academics’ arrests were the centerpiece of a recent trial in Massachusetts, where U.S. District Judge William Young is weighing whether the administration engaged in an unconstitutional policy of targeting immigrants based on their protected free speech.
Lawyers for Suri and the Trump administration agreed the settlement was a product of “good faith” negotiations intended to resolve Suri’s most urgent claims against the government. The settlement paperwork notes that the agreement has no bearing on whether ICE can pursue Suri’s deportation under federal immigration law.
A lawyer for Suri welcomed the partial settlement while acknowledging that the biggest legal issues around the effort to expel the scholar from the U.S. are still being battled out at various levels of the legal system.
“We are encouraged that the government agreed to restore Dr. Suri and his children’s status and records,” Eden Heilman of the ACLU said. “We know Dr. Suri is eager to rejoin the academic community at Georgetown and this will give him the opportunity to do that this fall.”
Spokespeople for the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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