Washington — A federal judge on Thursday blocked the government from deporting a Georgetown University researcher who was detained by immigration authorities earlier this week as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on activists across college campuses.

Badar Khan Suri, an Indian national, is a postdoctoral associate who was studying and teaching at Georgetown on a student visa. The government cited his alleged “close connections” to a Hamas official as justification for revoking the visa, saying he was “actively spreading Hamas propaganda.”

Attorneys for Suri filed a writ of habeas corpus and accompanying complaint challenging his detention in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on Tuesday, one day after his arrest. CBS News obtained the documents on Thursday.

In an order later in the day, Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles said Suri “shall not be removed from the United States unless and until the Court issues a contrary order.”

The complaint filed by Suri’s attorneys said he was surrounded and detained by masked DHS agents as he was returning to his home in Rosslyn, Virginia, where he lives with his wife Mapheze Saleh and their three children, after breaking his fast for Ramadan on March 17.

“The agents identified themselves as members of the Department of Homeland Security and stated that the government had revoked his visa,” the complaint said, adding that “the agents had face coverings and Ms. Saleh could only see their eyes.”

Roughly two hours after his arrest, Suri called his wife to let her know that he was being sent to a detention center in Farmville, Virginia, his attorneys said. They added that they believe he is likely to be moved to a detention facility in Los Fresnos, Texas, near the U.S.-Mexico border. As of Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator showed Suri was being held at a detention facility in Louisiana. His lawyers have filed a motion seeking his return to Virginia.

Suri’s attorneys said his “unjustified detention” violated his due process rights. They argued that the Trump administration’s targeting of noncitizens for removal based on protected speech, namely his and his wife’s views of Israel and Gaza, is “arbitrary and capricious” and constitutes viewpoint discrimination. They said that he has no criminal record and has not been charged with any crime.

The complaint alleged that the couple had “long been doxxed and smeared” online by an “anonymously-run blacklisting site” known as The Canary Mission. The site alleges that Saleh, who Suri’s attorneys said is a U.S. citizen, “has worked for Hamas, expressed support for Hamas terrorism and called for Israel’s destruction,” according to a profile dedicated to her on the site. The Canary Mission, the complaint said, runs a blacklist of individuals who its creators believe support Palestinian rights and “is infamous for bullying, slandering, and defaming academics and students.” The complaint also alleges that the couple were “smeared” by other websites.