“The Trump administration is trying to silence speech it doesn’t agree with by targeting people like Dr. Khan Suri and Mahmoud Khalil, but ideas are not illegal,” said ACU-VA Executive Director Mary Bauer.

“The moment I stepped out of the detention center, I inhaled deeply, a breath of freedom I had been deprived of for two, long months," said Dr. Badar Khan Suri.

Federal judge orders Dr. Badar Khan Suri released; ICE arrested him on March 17th for constitutionally protected speech and associations

"We are pleased the court saw through the Trump administration’s attempts to manipulate the law, and we won’t stop fighting until Dr. Khan Suri is reunited with his family," said ACLU-VA Legal Director Eden Heilman.

“The government can’t scrub references to race and gender from public school libraries and classrooms just because the Trump administration doesn’t like certain viewpoints on those topics,” said Matt Callahan, Senior Supervising Attorney at the ACLU of Virginia. 

“In my work, I’ve seen lots of injustice. I just didn't think it would happen to me here," says Dr. Khan Suri. 

“Ripping someone from their home and family, stripping them of their immigration status, and detaining them solely based on political viewpoint and activism is a clear attempt by President Trump to silence dissent,” said ACLU of Virginia Senior Immigrants’ Rights Attorney Sophia Gregg.

“The results of yesterday’s election are clear, and so is the threat to our democracy that a second Trump presidential term represents," said ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Mary Bauer. "We’re ready to fight any attack on these rights with the full force of the ACLU of Virginia."

As students go back to school, Virginians are still asking tough questions of their university administrations; to see the comprehensive results of what the ACLU of Virginia’s FOIA requests yielded, click here.