On Monday, lawyers from Muslim Advocates and Marzouk Law submitted an amended lawsuit challenging the March deportation of Assistant Professor of Medicine Rasha Alawieh. She was deported to Lebanon despite holding a valid H-1B visa and a federal judge’s order not to deport Alawieh without prior notice.
This new complaint was filed just before the U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin unsealed court documents Wednesday detailing the government’s argument for deporting Alawieh along with transcripts of a conversation between the Rhode Island doctor and a Boston-based official with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
In the now-public filings, the federal government claimed that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents found “sympathetic photos and videos” of various Hezbollah leaders, who Alawieh said she supported religiously rather than politically. Her phone also contained “Hezbollah martyr photos,” a lawyer for the U.S. Department of Justice wrote.
Hezbollah is an Iranian-backed militant group operating in southern Lebanon. The U.S. State Department has designated the group as a terrorist organization.
In the transcript, Alawieh denied political support of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah but expressed religious and spiritual support.
In the interview, Alawieh stated that many of the photos and videos scrutinized by the DHS were solely for religious reasons. “I’m not related to anything politically or militarily,” she said. “Many of these things are related to being a Shia Muslim.”
In the interview, the DHS officer questioned Alawieh over photos she sent of Hezbollah members. Alawieh explained that she mostly receives the photos. Upon further questioning, she admitted she had also sent some images.
After admitting to the DHS official that she attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, she was found to be inadmissible to the United States and removed from the country.
“A visa is a privilege not a right—glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied,” a DHS spokesperson said in an email to The Herald. “This is commonsense security.”
Filings submitted on Alawieh’s behalf in anticipation of a previous hearing also claimed that CBP officers “wilfully” ignored court orders from a federal judge requiring 48 hours’ notice of her removal from Massachusetts when they deported her.
A government lawyer responded to these claims, explaining that given the “extremely close timing” between the court order and the flight on Alawieh was placed, officers did not receive the order until she had left the country.
They submitted a sworn statement from a CBP supervisor who was on shift when Alawieh was deported.
At around 7 p.m., he wrote, he was notified by a person claiming to be Alawieh’s lawyer that a petition was filed in federal court to not remove Alawieh from the United States, but there was no formal court order. At 7:43 p.m. the flight carrying Alawieh departed Boston Logan Airport.
Less than half an hour later at approximately 8:20 p.m., the supervisor received instructions to follow the court order. By that time, Alawieh had departed the country.
Alawieh’s amended lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the authority of the CBP agents.
“Dr. Alawieh’s experience exemplifies why permitting non-appointed employees to make life-altering decisions, insulated from any review, is inconsistent with our constitutional system,” the suit reads.
The suit also challenges the officers’ use of an “expedited removal process,” rather than referring Alawieh’s case to an immigration court. It argues that with over six years of education and employment in the United States, Alawieh has “due-process rights that render the application of expedited removal to her unlawful.”
In response to the original petition, the DOJ argued that Alawieh did not have the right to due process because she was “an applicant for admission to the United States, and therefore only enjoyed the rights established by statute,” the response reads.
Alawieh’s role as one of three transplant nephrologists in Rhode Island was also emphasized throughout the suit. As a “highly specialized practice,” it emphasizes testimonials from her coworkers at Brown University Health who call her absence “detrimental to our program.”
The government’s response to Alawieh’s March filing also argued that the court did not have the jurisdiction to review the expedited removal order or to issue a stay of removal, which would have temporarily paused Alawieh’s deportation order.
Alawieh’s lawyers and the University did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Cate Latimer is a university news editor covering faculty, University Hall and higher education. She is from Portland, OR, and studies English and Urban Studies. In her free time, you can find her playing ultimate frisbee or rewatching episodes of Parks and Rec.
