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 supporting a Hezbollah leader and attending his funeral.
The department’s statement, posted on social media, provides a possible explanation Dr. Rasha Alawieh’s deportation, which has sparked widespread alarm, especially after a federal judge ordered that she not be removed until a hearing could be held. Government lawyers have said customs officials did not get word until after 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 its statement.
It’s the latest deportation of a foreign-born person with a U.S. visa, after a Palestinian activist who helped lead protests of the Gaza war at Columbia University was arrested and a doctoral student’s visa was revoked.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.
Stephanie Marzouk, Alawieh’s lawyer, said she would not stop fighting to get the 34-year-old doctor back in the U.S., “to see her patients where she should be.”
Marzouk did not immediately return a request for comment surrounding Homeland Security’s allegations that Alawieh supported a Hezbollah leader.
The Justice Department has also detailed its reasons for deporting Alawieh in court filings, but a federal judge has sealed those documents.
News outlets that were able to obtain those records before they were sealed report that Alawieh had photos on her phone of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militant group for the past three decades. The Boston Globe reported that she also had pictures of Hezbollah “fighters and martyrs” on her phone.
“According to Dr. Alawieh, she follows him for his religious and spiritual teachings and not his politics,” the court documents stated.
When asked why she deleted the photos days before arriving in Boston, Alawieh allegedly told officers: “Because I didn’t want the perception. But I know I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not related to anything politically or militarily.”
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 previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was detained at least 36 hours, 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 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.
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 U.S.
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.”
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.
Brown Medicine has roughly 300 to 400 patients waiting for kidney transplants, according to Shemin. Each needs regular evaluations, which now must be done by just two doctors.
A rally in support of her was planned for 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.
