Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese doctor associated with Brown University, was quickly deported from the U.S. last week for supporting terrorists, prompting the now too common uproar from pro-migration progressives.
Alawieh, a 34-year-old kidney transplant specialist, was detained on her return trip from Lebanon and informed that she was being immediately deported for supporting terrorists in her home country after she had reportedly attended Hezbollah terrorist leader Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral on February 23.
Nasrallah, who was eliminated by an Israeli airstrike on September 27 of last year, had praised Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel, calling it heroic, and he has been a chief Hezbollah figure in the Lebanon and Syrian war for decades.
Federal authorities have reported finding many photos of terror leaders in Lebanon on Alawieh’s phone — despite her attempts to delete them, Politico reported.
The Department of Homeland Security reminded social media users that a visa “is a privilege not a right” and that “glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is commonsense security.”
Authorities also say Alawieh admitted to attending the terror leader’s funeral, and that her interest was a “religious perspective,” not a “political” one.
When asked why she had so many photos and videos of Nasrallah, she said that the man was an important Muslim religious figure.
“So I have a lot of Whatsapp groups with families and friends who send them. So I am a Shia Muslim and he is a religious figure. He has a lot of teachings and he is highly regarded in the Shia community,” Alawieh told immigration officials, according to court documents.
“I think if you listen to one of his sermons you would know what I mean. He is a religious, spiritual person, as I said, he has very high value. His teachings are about spirituality and morality,” she added.
She also said she admires and supports Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, also on religious grounds, not political ones.
Despite her claims, officials told her she was being denied re-entry into the U.S. and would be immediately deported and the plane she was put on departed on Friday at abut 8 p.m.
The left-wing tried to jump into action to stop Alawieh’s deportation. That same Friday evening, at about 7 p.m., Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the Federal District Court in Massachusetts ordered federal authorities to postpone the deportation. And on Sunday morning he order officials to provide his court with evidence to substantiate her deportation and imposed a 48-hours’ notice for the reporting. However, Alawieh had already been placed on a flight to Paris and hence back to Lebanon as Sorokin was issuing his orders.
Judge Sorokin issued a second order on Sunday claiming that federal authorities purposefully defied his orders and had set a hearing for the doctor’s case for Monday morning, the New York Times reported.
Despite the judge’s flurry of orders over the weekend, though, he abruptly cancelled his hearing on Monday morning, after the Trump administration provided evidence that officials at Logan airport had not been informed of Sorokin’s orders when preparing Alawieh for the flight to France, according to UPI.
Sorokin has now given federal officials a week to supply him with the requested information on Alawieh’s deportation.
Meanwhile, Alawieh’s cousin Yara Chehab filed a suit on Friday naming U.S. Department Of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kristi Noem, Customs and Border Commissioner Peter Flores and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as defendants. The suit alleges that “CBP refuses to provide any justification for their detention, refuses to allow the attorneys to talk to Dr. Alawieh, and refuses to provide assurances that Dr. Alawieh will not be deported,” Axios wrote.
Alawieh was in the U.S. on a J-1 visa, and initially came to the U.S. in 2018 to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University. She then moved on to the University of Washington, then Yale, and finally to Brown University, where she worked with the school’s Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension.
The U.S. Department of State has also noted that reviews of visa holders don’t stop with first entry.
“U.S. visa screening does not stop after a visa is issued. We continuously check visa holders to ensure they follow all U.S. laws and immigration rules – and we will revoke their visas and deport them if they don’t,” the State Department said on X on Monday.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Facebook at: facebook.com/Warner.Todd.Huston, X at WTHuston, or Truth Social at @WarnerToddHuston.
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