A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the release of foreign Georgetown University researcher Badar Khan Suri from immigration detention, rebuking the Trump administration’s use of a Cold War-era law to justify Suri’s deportation over praise of and familial links to the terrorist group Hamas.

Suri, a postdoctoral fellow in the United States on a student visa who has lived in Northern Virginia with his wife and three children since 2022, has been in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in Texas since March. His arrest and subsequent transfer to a detention facility near Dallas sparked campus protests and drew national attention amid broader crackdowns on student activism over the Israel-Gaza war.

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But the Department of Homeland Security has previously accused Suri of spreading “Hamas propaganda,” antisemitic rhetoric, and allegedly maintaining a close connection to a senior adviser to Hamas. Canary Mission, a pro-Israel group, reported that the connection is Suri’s father-in-law, a senior adviser in Hamas.

At a hearing in Alexandria, U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles ruled from the bench that Suri must be released and allowed to return to Northern Virginia while he challenges his deportation order. The court’s finding centered on substantial First Amendment questions, with the judge noting that political speech, including criticism of U.S. foreign policy and support for Palestinians, is constitutionally protected, even for noncitizens.

“The First Amendment makes no distinction between citizens and noncitizens,” Giles said, adding that Suri “has not been accused or convicted of any crime.”

The Justice Department had asked to move the case to Texas, where Suri is being held, but Giles asserted jurisdiction in Virginia, siding with Suri’s legal team. His lawyers claim the government is retaliating against him for his family’s speech and political views, particularly his U.S. citizen wife’s online support for the Palestinian cause.

In March, Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked Suri’s visa under a rarely used provision that allows deportation of noncitizens deemed harmful to U.S. foreign policy interests. The same law has been cited in the detentions of other university students, including at Columbia and Tufts, whose free speech claims have so far similarly won traction in court.

In Suri’s case, the government invoked Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, a provision that allows the State Department to revoke visas or deport noncitizens whose presence is deemed by the secretary of state to pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”

The defendant’s attorneys argue the administration is weaponizing immigration law to suppress dissent on U.S. campuses and deny the allegations of any closeness with the terrorist network.

This ruling comes amid growing legal challenges to the administration’s handling of campus speech. In recent weeks, two other students, Mohsen Mahdawi and Rumeysa Ozturk, have been released by order of federal judges in Vermont after raising nearly identical claims. The Trump administration says both students engaged in activities, including organizing protests and sharing incendiary content online, that threatened U.S. foreign policy interests.

The government has pointed to law enforcement records indicating that Mahdawi has admitted “to being involved in and supporting antisemitic acts of violence” and “an interest in and facility with firearms for that purpose.” In Ozturk’s case, DHS previously said an agency investigation found she “engaged in activities in support of Hamas.”

Suri is expected to return to his home in Arlington in the coming days. Hundreds of Georgetown students, faculty, and alumni, along with a coalition of Jewish clergy in the Washington, D.C. area, have signed an open letter urging his release and denouncing the government’s actions as a dangerous overreach.

JUDGE BLOCKS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION’S DEPORTATION OF GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY FELLOW

The government has not yet indicated whether it will appeal the judge’s order.

The Washington Examiner reached out to DHS for comment.