BOSTON (AP) — Homeland Security officials on Monday said that a doctor from Lebanon who was deported over the weekend despite having a U.S. visa “openly admitted” to attending the funeral of a Hezbollah leader, as well as supporting him.
The department's statement, posted on social media, provides a possible explanation for the deportation of the 34-year-old Dr. Rasha Alawieh, whose removal from the U.S. has sparked widespread alarm, especially after a federal judge ordered that she not be sent back until there was a hearing. Government lawyers have said customs officials did not get word in time before Alawieh was sent back to Lebanon.
“A visa is a privilege not a right—glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is commonsense security,” Homeland Security said in their statement.
The Department of Justice has also detailed their reasons for deporting Alawieh in court filings, but those documents have been sealed from the public by a federal judge. News outlets that were able to obtain those records before they were sealed report that Alawieh had photos of Hassan Nasrallah — the leader of the Lebanese militant group for the past three decades — on her phone.
It's the latest deportation of a foreign-born person with a U.S. visa in the past week, after a student at Columbia who led protests of the Gaza war was arrested, and another student's visa was revoked. The Trump administration also transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations.
Alawieh had been granted the visa on March 11 and arrived at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by a cousin in federal court.
Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who had worked and lived in Rhode Island previously, was detained at least 36 hours, through Friday, the complaint said. She was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin issued an order on Friday that an in-person hearing be scheduled Monday, with Alawieh brought to court.
But by Saturday, the cousin filed a motion that customs officials “willfully” disobeyed the order by sending Alawieh back to Lebanon.
Lawyers for the government said in a court filing Monday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Boston airport did not receive notice of the order until she “had already departed the United States,” the judge noted. They asked that the petition be dismissed.
The judge put a hearing on the case on hold on Monday, to give Alawieh's lawyers time to prepare.
Stephanie Marzouk, Alawieh’s lawyer, said they were working to ensure the U.S. government follows the rule of law. She said they would not stop fighting to get her back in the U.S., "to see her patients where she should be.”
Alawieh worked at Brown prior to the issuance of her H1B visa, the complaint said. It said she has held fellowships and residencies at three universities in the United States.
A spokesperson for Brown said Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine with a clinical appointment to Brown.
Brown Medicine is a not-for-profit medical practice that is its own organization and serves its own patients directly. It is affiliated with Brown University's medical school.
On Monday, a handful of Alawieh’s colleagues stood outside Boston’s federal courthouse to support the doctor.
“She is a one of three transplant nephrologists in the entire state of Rhode Island, which, you know, also serves the parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut,” said Dr. Susie Hu. “Her absence is really detrimental to our program.”
Hu added transplant nephrology is a “highly specialized field” and filling Alawieh’s position will likely be very difficult.
Dr. Douglas Shemin, who said he hired Alawieh at Brown Medicine, called her an “outstanding” clinician, physician and teacher who eagerly put in long hours without complaining.
“She has an important fountain of knowledge, a fountain of knowledge that not everyone has," he said.
Brown Medicine currently has roughly 300 to 400 patients waiting for kidney transplants, according to Shemin. Each one needs to regularly evaluated, which now must be done by just two doctors.
A rally was planned to support her Monday night at the Rhode Island statehouse.
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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the doctor's last name throughout. Her name is Rasha Alawieh, not Rasha Alawiech.
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McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Kimberlee Kruesi contributed to this report from Nashville, Tennessee.
