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For months, in the police custody of immigration and customs, Badar Khan Suri, the postdoctoral researcher of the University of Georgetown, who was targeted for the expulsion of the Trump administration, said that he had turned a story for his 5 -year -old sons to help them face his absence.
“For my young twins, I created a story they could hold on: I told them that I was traveling and I lost myself somewhere in the clouds, trying to find my way home,” said Khan Suri in an email at NBC News.
It was one of the ways, said Khan Suri, that he tried to continue parenting of his three children “with love, creativity and resilience” of detention. Now, a little over a month since his Liberation of an ice installation in TexasKhan Suri has thought about his experience in the separation of the family, who, according to him, has made a significant number on his wife and children.
Khan Suri attributes to his wife, Maphaz Ahmad Yousef, to be a critical support system for their children, calling her “blessing”. However, he still treats the pain of separation, he said.
“For my family too, I think that the dynamics of power have changed. I am no longer the supplier or the protector that I was in the past,” he said. “But I have the clarity of the survivor, as I saw injustice. I reconstruct my journey with meaning and truth. ”
Parenting of detention, he said, “was one of the most heartbreaking parties of my experience-but also the one that made me move forward.”
These days, Khan Suri – who was released last month after a judge ruled that his detention had violated the right of the first amendment to freedom of expression and the right of the fifth amendment to regular procedure – said that his children enjoyed life with their parents at home. He said that he had returned to certain daddy’s tasks par excellence, in particular by bringing his children to the bus stop, and he won the privilege of being identified as the favorite parent in cleaning.
“Even the twins say” baba “when I ask who they like the most,” he joked. “Before, it was always a clear” mom “.”
But three months ago, Khan Suri was far from his family when he was arrested outside his Arlington, Virginia, house and accused by the Department of Internal Security of “the active propagation of Hamas propaganda and promotion of anti -Semitism on social networks”. He has never been officially accused of a crime.
Khan Suri “has close ties with a known or suspected terrorist, who is a Hamas principal advisor,” said DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin on x.
His lawyer Hassan Ahmad denied several times that he has ever made pro-Hamas or anti-Semitic statements. Khan Suri’s stepfather, Ahmed Yousef, was an adviser to a deceased Hamas leader. Yousef said that he had left his position over ten years ago and that he has since Become a critic of Hamas.
Khan Suri described the first week in police custody as a “nightmare”.
“That night, my wife could not bring my personal effects back. My eldest son saw only my bag going home and not me,” he said about the night of his arrest. “I was sad for my children, who had lost their father, their security coverage, their ease in life.”
He had been moved to several facilities and three states, finally landing in the Prairieland detention center in Alvarado, Texas. However, when Khan Suri’s detention stretched, he said, he was aimed at maintaining a semblance of lightness for his family. During their occasional telephone calls at home, Khan Suri said he was ensuring that his younger children absorbed his big history on the clouds.
“When I was lucky to talk to them, I repeated this same story,” he said. “They would draw photos for me, and even save cupcakes or slices of pizza for me as if I could come back at any time – they refused to let someone else touch my share.”
While his younger sons believed that he had traveled in the sky, Khan Suri said that his older child had picked up pieces of his situation. And while in the establishment, said the father, he had tried to paint a more positive image of the conditions in which he lived, especially since his 9 -year -old child had become more withdrawn.
“I tried to make humor in our conversations when I could,” he said. “I would tell him that I had a PlayStation 4, a basketball court and a football field where I was, and he laughed and asked questions about them.”
According to the petition of Habeas de Khan Suri, it was not awarded a bed in a dormitory when he arrived at the establishment. Instead, it was placed in the “TV room” of detention, where television takes place every day from 5 am to 2 am, according to the petition. Khan Suri also asked for religious housing and had received halal food until five days, according to documents.
“On April 2, police came and told him that he complained through his lawyer for his religious housing and asked him for more details,” said the petition. “After Dr. Khan Suri reaffirmed his needs, he received a prayer mat, a Koran, and provided a space on a bed in the dormitory, outside the TV room.”
He also received a bright red uniform, generally reserved for people classified as requiring high security due to their criminal history, the petition said. When he inquired about the uniform, Khan Suri was informed that he had fallen into the category because of his association “with a known criminal group – probably based on the unfounded affirmations of respondents on his links with Hamas,” said the petition.
“Due to its classification and security protocols in the establishment, Dr. Khan Suri is only authorized two hours per week of leisure,” said the petition.
Khan Suri said he also had his children in mind to deal with the circumstances.
“I will write about them, I would think of them-as when their school bus would come, when it comes back, what they would do during the day, what they drew,” he said. “When I saw children’s drawings other prisoners, I felt love for my children.”
After being released following the judge’s decision that the government had not demonstrated that Khan Suri was a risk of theft or a danger to the community, he said that the meeting with his children was joyful.
“In the morning, I woke up in front of them. When they saw me, all three shouted with joy, kissed and kissed me,” he said. “For twins, I finally came back from” clouds “.”
