NERMEEN SHAIKH: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Nermeen Shaikh, with Amy Goodman in Baltimore.

We end the show with an update on Badar Khan Suri, the Georgetown University professor and postdoctoral scholar who was arrested in March by masked federal agents outside of his home in Virginia. He had a hearing Thursday before a Biden-appointed judge, who gave Trump officials 24 hours to provide details on when they decided to move Suri across at least five ICE facilities to an ICE jail in Texas, where he remains separated from his wife, who’s a U.S. citizen of Palestinian descent, and his three children.

For more, we’re joined now by Mary Bauer, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, and Nader Hashemi, professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University and director of the center where Badar Khan Suri was hired as a postdoctoral fellow, Georgetown’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

Welcome, both, to Democracy Now! Nader Hashemi, if we could begin with? You very recently went to visit Badar Khan Suri in the ICE detention facility where he now is in Texas. If you could tell us about that visit?

NADER HASHEMI: Well, I went to visit him because since his arrest on March the 17th, no one had actually gone down to meet him. So, I figured out where he was. I called the detention facility, and I was able to meet him, but, of course, not face to face. One of the shocking things that I learned when I went to the ICE detention facility was that Badar Khan Suri has been designated by the Department of Homeland Security as a high-security, high-risk threat prisoner, so he has restricted rights in the detention facility. He only gets two hours of fresh air a week. There are constant roll calls to determine his presence in the prison. And you’re not able to meet high-risk prisoners face to face, so I had to speak with him through a window via an intercom telephone.

You know, he told me about the conditions that were in that prison, and they were, you know, quite, quite, quite shocking and quite horrific. One of the things that I took away from the meeting was really his spirit of resistance. I wrote an essay on this topic that people can look up and find more details. But Badar Khan Suri was very adamant that the suffering and the pain that he has faced and that his family has been subjected to will be worth it, if it helps expose, number one, the naked authoritarianism of the Trump administration, and, number two, if his incarceration keeps the spotlight on the genocide on Gaza. So, I was really touched by his willingness to fight back and to, you know, have his day in court and push back against the charges that have been directed against him by the Trump administration.

AMY GOODMAN: Mary Bauer, you’re executive director of the ACLU of Virginia. If you can give us an update on what the judge said yesterday? And I know things are going to change over these next few days. Today is the deadline for the federal lawyers; tomorrow, for Suri’s lawyers. Explain why he, this Indian national, this postdoctoral graduate student and professor at Georgetown, was picked up, to begin with. And what did the judge say?

MARY BAUER: Yes. Dr. Suri was picked up because he had spoken out for peace. He teaches peace. He was arrested very clearly because of his political view and family association. And that is fundamentally at odds with the values of American values. He was grabbed by masked agents without due process. He was sent more than a thousand miles away, after a series of detention facilities.

We were very pleased with the judge’s questions in court. They were very thoughtful questions, and they obviously sought to hold the government accountable and ask them: Why was he moved repeatedly? Why was he taken out of Virginia? Why was he brought to a facility a thousand miles away, when there were beds in Virginia, and he had to sleep on the floor in the facility in Texas? So, there are real questions that the government is going to have to answer, and they only have until 5:00 today. So we are very much looking forward to seeing those answers, so that we can respond.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, I’d like to go to Dr. Badar Khan Suri’s wife, Mapheze Saleh, who was speaking on Thursday outside the courthouse of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.

MAPHEZE SALEH: I am here today not just as the wife of the political prisoner Badar Khan Suri. I speak for everyone who once believed that the United States stood for freedom and justice. On March 17th, masked federal agents abducted Badar outside our home in Virginia. His unjust and illegal arrest has turned our life upside down. Our three children have not seen their father for 44 days. They have only seen him on a screen wearing a red uniform used for those considered the most dangerous people in detention center. Our very young twins are not aware of what’s going on. They just want their father to come back. But our oldest have a sense. He cries all the time and tries to hide his tears from his sibling. After his arrest, Badar, who suffer from —

NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, Mary Bauer, if you could just tell us what’s next in his case?

MARY BAUER: The judge indicated that she would rule quickly. We are expecting answers from the government. The judge is expecting answers from the government to very specific questions that really go to the heart of our case. Why was he moved in the way — in this secretive way? Why was he picked up for removal to Louisiana and then Texas? We will have until 6:00 tomorrow to respond, and then we do expect a ruling relatively quickly from the court.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Mary Bauer, executive director of the ACLU of Virginia, and Nader Hashemi, thank you so much for joining us. Nader Hashemi, professor of Middle East and Islamic politics at Georgetown University and director of the center where Badar Khan Suri was a postdoctoral fellow, Georgetown’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

And that does it for today’s show. A very happy birthday to Denis Moynihan! Democracy Now! is produced with Renée Feltz, Mike Burke, Deena Guzder, Messiah Rhodes, María Taracena, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud, Anjali Kamat and Safwat Nazzal. Our executive director is Julie Crosby. Special thanks to Becca Staley, Jon Randolph, Paul Powell, Mike Di Filippo, Miguel Nogueira, Hugh Gran, Denis Moynihan, David Prude, Dennis McCormick, Matt Ealy, Anna Özbek, Emily Andersen, Dante Torrieri and Buffy Saint Marie. I’m Nermeen Shaikh, with Amy Goodman, for another edition of Democracy Now!