The U.S. government on Thursday requested the transfer of Indian national Badar Khan Suri’s deportation case from a Virginia federal court to Texas, where he is currently detained on allegations of “spreading Hamas propaganda.” However, U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles expressed skepticism about the move, voicing concern that transferring the case could nullify her prior order preventing Suri’s deportation during ongoing First Amendment proceedings.
“I’m not going to rely on that. But thank you,” Judge Giles said in response to Justice Department attorney David Byerley, who assured the court that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) would honor the existing deportation stay if the case were shifted to Texas.
Ahead of the hearing, government lawyers argued that Suri’s case should have been filed in Texas, not Virginia, since he was no longer in the state. They described the transfer as a routine legal procedure. Suri was moved from a detention center in Farmville, Virginia, to Louisiana, and later to Texas—moves the Trump administration claimed were due to overcrowding.
But Judge Giles questioned that explanation, demanding data on bed availability at Farmville at the time of Suri’s arrest, and asking how many detainees were actually relocated due to overcrowding.
Suri’s attorneys, representing him through the American Civil Liberties Union, argued that his transfer was not logistical but strategic. They accused the government of “forum shopping”—shifting the case to Texas to gain a more favorable hearing in a court system dominated by conservative, Republican-appointed judges. Texas falls under the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, known for its right-leaning decisions. Of its 17 active judges, 12 were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by Donald Trump.
Outside the Alexandria courthouse, Suri’s lawyer Hassan Ahmad echoed these concerns, saying, “There’s a reason these detention facilities are located where they are. This kind of rigged game has to stop.”
Suri’s legal team maintains that his arrest and detention are unconstitutional, rooted in political targeting linked to his wife’s family in Gaza. They claim his wife, Mapheze Saleh, was targeted because her father worked with the Hamas-backed administration in Gaza prior to the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Badar Khan Suri, who came to the U.S. in 2022 on a J-1 visa, is a postdoctoral fellow and visiting scholar at Georgetown University’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He holds a PhD in Peace and Conflict Studies from Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. The couple has three young children: a 9-year-old son and 5-year-old twins.
Suri filed the lawsuit shortly after being arrested on March 17 by plainclothes agents outside his Arlington, Virginia apartment complex
