On Friday, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin dismissed a case challenging Assistant Professor of Medicine Rasha Alawieh’s March deportation. The lawsuit, filed by her lawyers in May, questioned the expedited removal process during her deportation as well as the authority of the immigration officials involved.
Alawieh was deported to Lebanon after U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents found “sympathetic photos and videos” of various Hezbollah leaders on her phone. The deportation was enforced despite Sorokin’s own March 14 ruling requiring notice of Alawieh’s removal and Alawieh holding an H-1B visa.
Hezbollah is a Lebanon-based group designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Department of State. Alawieh told federal agents that she supported the leaders religiously rather than politically.
“The relief Alawieh seeks in this action is beyond what this court can provide,” Sorokin wrote in the Oct. 31 ruling.
The amended lawsuit, filed by lawyers from Muslim Advocates and Massachusetts-based Marzouk Law, challenged the constitutionality of the expedited removal process rather than referring Alawieh’s case to an immigration court.
Her lawyers argued that Alawieh has “due process rights that render the application of expedited removal to her unlawful.”
“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.
Alawieh had spent over six years studying and practicing medicine in the United States. As one of three transplant nephrologists in Rhode Island at the time, her colleagues at Brown University Health emphasized in the suit that her absence was “detrimental” to their program.
In a June filing in response to the lawsuit, the federal government had said the court lacked the jurisdiction to address the suit’s claims and recommended the court to dismiss the case.
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.
