Dr. Khan Suri was arrested by DHS officials in March 2025 due to his pro-Palestinian speech as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on scholars and students. In May 2025, a federal judge ordered his release from custody, finding that the Trump administration had violated his rights on several counts.

At the Fourth Circuit hearing on March 17, the government contended that courts lack the ability to review constitutional challenges brought by immigrants. At least two of the judges expressed skepticism about that argument. Noor Zafar, an ACLU senior staff attorney and counsel for Dr. Khan Suri, responded that the government’s argument is plainly counter to the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), wherein Congress expressly authorized constitutional challenges to detention during deportation proceedings. Siding with the government would effectively allow immigration officials to target anyone because of their viewpoint and confine them—for months or years—without substantive paths for review. A ruling from the three-judge panel is forthcoming.

Dr. Khan Suri is one of several noncitizens lawfully in the United States whom the Trump administration targeted for their protected speech. The last of the noncitizens who remained detained, Leqaa Kordia, was finally released on bond on March 16, 2026. The immigration judge granted her release on three separate occasions, each time finding that she was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community. Ms. Kordia has now reunited with her U.S. citizen mother and family.