 "Demonstrators gather in support of Dr Rasha Alawieh, a kidney specialist and assistant professor at Brown University who was refused re-entry to the United States despite holding an H1-B visa, in Providence, Rhode Island, US. Reuters")
A Brown University assistant professor and doctor was deported on Friday from Boston to Lebanon despite having a valid H-1B visa and a court order halting the deportation.
The US authorities on Monday said they deported Dr Rasha Alawieh after discovering “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hassan Nasrallah, the former long-time leader of Hezbollah, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in her cell phone’s deleted items folder.
As the fight continued, hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the Rhode Island State House lawn to show their support.
Let’s take a closer look.
Who is Rasha Alawieh?
Dr Rasha Alawieh is a Lebanese citizen who was living in Rhode Island and worked at Brown University’s medical school, Division of Kidney Disease and Hypertension, since July 2024, as per India Today.
According to The Times of India, quoting Dr George Bayliss, the transplant division’s medical director, she assessed possible kidney transplant candidates and monitored patients after the procedure.
She was appointed as an assistant professor at Brown Medicine.
Alawieh was approved for an H-1B visa, which was sponsored by Brown Medicine. The solicitor, who manages immigration matters for the university’s doctors, said her visa was valid till mid-2027.
According to NBC, she completed her residency at the American University of Beirut Medical Centre three years after graduating from American University in Beirut in 2015.
Before entering Brown Medicine, she completed J-1 programmes at Yale Waterbury Internal Medicine, Ohio State University, and the University of Washington.
Detention and deportation
According to CNN citing a court statement, Alawieh travelled to Lebanon in February for what she believed would be a short trip but was delayed in her return while attempting to obtain documentation from the US Consulate in Beirut.
As per the complaint, Alawieh’s documents were authorised on March 11; nevertheless, upon her arrival at Boston Logan International Airport on Friday, she was detained immediately and informed that she would be deported to Lebanon the next day.
She was first taken to Paris, according to her lawyer, and then on a second flight to Lebanon, where she arrived on Sunday.
After her cousin filed a lawsuit to stop her deportation, US district court judge Leo T Sorokin issued an order prohibiting the deportation without giving the court 48 hours’ notice. However, she was still deported.
Ahead of a hearing that was supposed to take place on Monday, the judge on Sunday ordered the Donald Trump-led administration to respond to “serious allegations” that his order was wilfully violated.
The cousin’s lone lawyer requested that the hearing be postponed on Monday when attorneys from the pro bono firm Arnold and Porter Kaye Scholer withdrew, citing “further diligence” over the rapidly progressing case.
Also read: Could Prince Harry be deported from the US over past drug use?
Links with Hezbollah and Iran
US authorities on Monday said they deported Alawieh to Lebanon last week after discovering “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah slain leader Nasrallah, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah and militants in her cell phone’s deleted items folder.
She also told agents that while in Lebanon she attended Nasrallah’s funeral last month, whom she supported from a “religious perspective” as a Shi’ite Muslim.
According to a transcript of that interview reviewed by Reuters, she told CBP she did not support Hezbollah but had high regard for Nasrallah because of her religion. “I’m not a political person,” she said. “I’m a physician. It’s mainly about faith.”
Based on those statements and the discovery of photos, the Justice Department said CBP concluded that “her true intentions in the United States could not be determined.” “A visa is a privilege not a right - glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied,” U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “This is commonsense security.”
The US Department of Justice provided those details as it sought to assure Sorokin that US Customs and Border Protection did not wilfully disobey an order Sorokin issued on Friday that should have halted Alawieh’s immediate deportation.
According to the lawyer, she went to the airport on Friday and showed a CBP officer a copy of Sorokin’s order on her laptop before Alawieh’s Air France flight took off. In a declaration on Monday, another CBP official stated that he was informed of the incident prior to escorting Alawieh to the boarding area. However, according to the Justice Department, the notification had to be received by the agency’s legal counsel and through the proper channels for their assessment and direction, which never happened.
“CBP takes court orders seriously and strives to always abide by a court order,” Justice Department attorneys wrote.
Western governments, including the US, designate Hezbollah as a terrorist group. The Lebanese terrorist group is part of the “Axis of Resistance,” a coalition of organisations supported by Iran throughout West Asia.
In a separate statement, foreign nationals going to the US with a visa are not assured entry, according to US Customs and Border Protection, which also stated that border patrol officers have the last word over who is allowed access after security inspections.
“Foreign nationals who promote extremist ideologies or carry terrorist propaganda are inadmissible to the US, plain and simple," CBP spokesperson Hilton Beckham told CNN yesterday.
The fight continues
Outside of court, Stephanie Marzouk, the attorney for Yara Chehab, Alawieh’s cousin, told reporters they were “not going to stop fighting.”
“Our client is in Lebanon, and we’re not going to stop fighting to get her back in the US to see her patients, and we’re also going to make sure that the government follows the rule of law,” she said.
Hours later, hundreds of demonstrators, including some of her colleagues from the hospital, gathered on the Rhode Island State House lawn in Providence to show their support.
They carried signs saying, “Her visa was valid,” “She did nothing wrong,” and “Stop mass deportation now,” according to Reuters.
Brown University said that it was looking for further information about what transpired.
After learning of Alawieh’s deportation, the institution released guidelines telling its academics, staff, and foreign students to think about delaying personal travel outside of the US “out of an abundance of caution.”
Her expulsion also comes at a time when US President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to increase immigration arrests and severely restrict border crossing.
With inputs from agencies
Vibhuti is on the Explainers team at Firstpost. She covers a wide range of topics including Indian political affairs, international relations, climate change, among others. She likes to split her free time between travelling, reading, and doing research.