The Trump administration deported a Lebanese doctor who was an assistant professor at Brown University's medical school after investigators found “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders on her phone, the Justice Department said.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, was arrested after arriving at Boston's Logan International Airport on Thursday. Her family alleged that authorities did not provide reasons for her deportation, and they alleged that her rights were violated because she had an aggressive visa to live and work in the United States.
The DOJ has since claimed that Providence, Rhode Island, has had an affinity to the Lebanon-based terrorist group. Politico reported.
Alawie also allegedly admitted to attending the funeral of Hezbollah chief Hassannaslala, who was murdered last month.
She argued that she attended the ceremony “from a religious perspective” from a political perspective, not from a religious perspective.
“The CBP questioned Dr. Alawie and determined that she could not determine her true intentions in the United States,” US lawyer Michael Sadie filed in court on Monday.
Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Hilton Beckham added that the burden of establishing evidence of acceptability for the US will fall into immigration, with agency officials “strickenly adhering to protocols to identify and suspend threats.”
However, the agency didn't immediately state what the “threat” had been filed by Alawier and why she was chosen for removal, so her family forced her to file a lawsuit.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin ordered the CBP to stop the deportation of Ivy League professors until court hearing Monday, but the doctors ran out of the country in a seemingly intentional violation of the judge's order.
“The government shall respond to these serious allegations in legal and de facto responses that set out versions of the event,” Obama-era appointee Sorokin wrote in order.
The CBP argued that it would never intentionally ignore the court's order, and John Wallace testified that the agency had not received the order before Alawier flew to Paris for a connecting flight to Lebanon on Friday night.
Sorkin issued the order Friday at 7:18pm, court records show.
According to flight tracker Flightaware, the doctor's flight departed from the gate around 7:43pm and took off from the airport just before 8pm.
Sorkin postponed the hearing on Monday, giving the government another week to submit further information about what happened in Alawieh.
Kidney transplant doctors have held a visa in the United States since their first arrival in 2018 to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University.
She continued to maintain her position in the Yale-Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, which was completed in June with her subsequent fellowships at the University of Washington and the Yale Waterbury Internal Medicine Program.
Alawie was later given an H-1B visa by the US consulate in Lebanon, allowing her to work at Brown University, according to a lawsuit filed by her family.
The lawsuit alleges that Alawie visited a Lebanese family and was back at Providence's home when she was suddenly arrested by a CBP official at Boston airport.
Alawie's lawsuit is about whether the Trump administration is complying with a court ruling that is obstructing his immigration agenda as concerns rise over other cases over the weekend.
The Trump administration on Sunday touted that hundreds of Venezuelans have been deported to El Salvador under the alien enemy law, despite the federal judge's order temporarily banning their deportation.
With post wire
