Federal authorities said Brown University assistant professors and doctors expressed support for the H-1B visa and deported them to Lebanon despite attending the funeral of the murdered Hezbollah leader who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans.
“Last month, Rasha Alawieh traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend Hassan Nasrara's funeral, a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, killing hundreds of Americans in a fourth-grade terrorist attack explosion.” “Alawieh openly admitted this to her support for CBP officers and Nasrara.”
“Visa is a privilege, not a right. Praise and support terrorists who kill Americans is the basis for the denied issuance of a visa. This is common sense security,” McLaughlin said.
“Foreigners who promote extremist ideology or carry terrorist propaganda are simple and simple, unacceptable to the US,” Hilton Beckham, deputy public affairs committee for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), added a statement to Fox News Digital. “A visa does not guarantee entry. CBP has final authority after performing strict security checks. Officers act swiftly to deny entry to those who praise terrorist organizations, advocate for violence, openly support terrorist leaders and commemorate their deaths. Anyone found in extremist material linked to US-designated terrorist groups will be deleted. ”
Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old doctor specializing in kidney transplants who recently lived in Rhode Island, was taken into custody at Boston Logan International Airport, where he returned from a trip to Lebanon on Thursday.
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Tens of thousands of mourners have pledged their support for Hezbollah at the Beirut funeral of leader Hassan Nasrara, who was murdered on February 23, 2025. (Anwar Amro/AFP via Getty Images)
Alawie was questioned by the CBP and allegedly told federal agents he attended Nasrara's funeral, US lawyer Michael Sadie reportedly wrote in a new application Monday.
The filing was then sealed, but Politico and Providence Journal were able to report its contents in advance.
Alawieh is said to have stated that she supported Nasrallah “from a religious perspective” according to Politico.
Federal authorities also searched Alawie's mobile phones and said they found “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders and documents showing “various other Hezbollah militants” in deleted folders.
“The discovery of these photos and videos led CBP to question Dr. Alawie and determines that she cannot determine her true intentions in the United States,” a lawyer for the DOJ wrote. “As a result, CBP cancelled its visa and deemed Dr. Alawie unacceptable to the US.”
Pedestrians pass the building that houses Brown University's Warren Alpert Medical School in Providence, Rhode Island on January 30, 2019. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott, File)
US District Judge Leo Sorokin, appointing former President Barack Obama, ordered an in-person hearing on Monday in Alawier's case.
Sorokin ordered Alawie to not be deported for at least 48 hours without giving the court a 48-hour notice. Arawier reportedly was placed on a flight to Paris anyway and returned to Lebanon over the weekend.
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Sorokin is scheduled to begin on March 25th and reportedly postponed Monday's hearing before rescheduling.
CBP official John Wallace said in his affidavit that federal agents were not notified of the court order through appropriate channels before Arawier was placed on Air France flights on Friday, Politico reported.
Alawieh first came to the United States in 2018 to pursue a nephrology fellowship at Ohio State University. She completed her fellowship at Washington University and her internal medicine program at Yale.
The mourners will be attending the funeral of Hassan Nasrara and Hashem Safidydeen, the murdered Hezbollah leaders on the outskirts of Beirut on February 23, 2025. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Her cousin, Yara Sherb, tried to intervene in court last week while Arawier was in airport detention for more than 36 hours. According to her federal lawsuit, Brown Medicine sponsored Alawieh for an H-1B visa to do the job of an assistant professor.
“We are trying to continue learning more about what happened. It may be helpful to share that Dr. RashaAlawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine and has been clinically appointed to Brown University,” a university spokesman told Fox News Digital.
Fox News Digital says Brown Medicine is a non-profit medical practice and provides services directly to the patients themselves. It is affiliated with Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University, but is not run by universities or medical schools.
Alawieh was issued a H-1B visa on March 11 to pursue an assistant professor in the role of medicine and clinicians at Brown University. The lawsuit says she worked for Brown before the current H-1B visa issuance.
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Fox News Digital contacted the Massachusetts District, the Department of Justice and the US Lawyer for Attorneys for Chhab, but did not respond immediately.
