A Rhode Island doctor who is an assistant professor at Brown University's medical school was deported to Lebanon after officers found "controversial" images in her phone, prosecutors claimed, even though a judge had issued an order blocking the US visa holder's immediate removal from the country.
On Monday, US prosecutors filed new documents in US District Court in Massachusetts, claiming Dr. Alawieh was questioned at the airport about photos on her phone of Hassan Nasrallah, the late longtime leader of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, as well as pictures of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, according to the Boston Globe.
In response, Dr. Alawieh told airport officials that both Nasrallah and Khamenei are esteemed in the Shia community for their religious and spiritual guidance and emphasised her focus on their teachings rather than their politics, prosecutors told the court.
"It's a purely religious thing," she said about attending Nasrallah’s funeral, according to a transcript of that interview reviewed by Reuters news agency. "He's a very big figure in our community. For me it's not political."
The Globe said US District Judge Leo Sorokin cancelled Monday's hearing, gave Dr. Alawieh's lawyer until March 24 to supplement their response, and gave the government until March 31 to respond.
The expulsion of Dr. Alawieh, 34, came as Republican US President Donald Trump's administration has sought to sharply restrict border crossing and ramp up immigration arrests.
Dr. Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen who lives in Providence, was detained on Thursday after arriving at Logan International Airport in Boston after traveling to Lebanon to see relatives, according to a lawsuit filed by her cousin, Yara Chehab.
She had held a visa to be in the United States since 2018, when she first came to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University before then completing a fellowship at the University of Washington and then moving to the Yale-Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, which she completed in June.
While in Lebanon, the US consulate issued Dr. Alawieh an H-1B visa authorising her entry into the United States to work at Brown University, the lawsuit said. Such visas are reserved for people from other countries who are employed in specialty occupations.
Despite that visa, officials detained her at the airport for reasons her family members have still not been provided, according to the lawsuit, which argued her rights were being violated.
Trump admin on deportation spree
Sorokin had on Friday evening issued orders barring Dr. Alawieh’s removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours' notice to the court and requiring her to be brought to a court hearing on Monday.
Yet according to the cousin's attorneys, after that order was issued, Dr. Alawieh was flown to Paris, where she was then set to board a flight for Lebanon that had been scheduled for Sunday.
Sorokin on Sunday directed the government to provide a legal and factual response by Monday morning.
Concerns have also been raised in other cases about whether the Trump administration is complying with court rulings blocking parts of its agenda.
The Trump administration on Sunday said it has deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador under seldom-used wartime powers, despite a federal judge's order temporarily barring such deportations.
The Trump administration is reportedly considering travel bans on people from up to 43 countries. Lebanon is not on the list, which is subject to change.
Dr. George Bayliss of Brown Medicine warned that fear over immigration status could "harm the pipeline (of skilled physicians) even more."
He described Dr. Alawieh as "a very talented, very thoughtful physician" and said: "We are all outraged, and none of us know why this happened."
The Globe, meanwhile, cited Dr. Susie Hu, interim director of Brown Medicine’s kidney disease and hypertension division, as saying that "Alawieh is one of three kidney transplant nephrologists in the state."
Dr. Alawieh is "highly competent, highly regarded. She came to work with a smile and was truly compassionate."
