US court rejects Trump bid to re-detain pro-Palestinian scholar

A US appeals court has rebuffed an effort by the Trump administration to detain a Georgetown University scholar advocating for Palestinian rights. The Richmond-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that immigration law does not bar judges from ordering the release of individuals like Badar Khan Suri if their detention is challenged on constitutional grounds.

Suri, an Indian citizen, was arrested in March 2025 as part of a broader administration campaign targeting foreign nationals involved in pro-Palestinian activism on US campuses. The court found that Suri's claims of due process and free speech violations under the US Constitution could be heard, even while deportation proceedings were pending.

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Whether the Government has chosen to detain Suri to punish his speech and associations and to chill and deter future speech, and whether it constitutionally may do so, are different questions from whether the Government has and may seek to remove Suri because of his speech and associations.

US Circuit Judge DeAndrea Benjamin, writing for the majority, stated that the government's motives for detention, whether to punish speech or deter future activism, are separate from the question of whether the individual can be removed due to their speech. The ruling was supported by judges appointed by Democratic presidents, while a judge appointed by Ronald Reagan dissented, viewing the decision as a setback for the immigration system.

The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement, has not yet commented on the ruling. Suri resided in Virginia at the time of his arrest.

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a loss for the immigration system Congress carefully designed.