BOSTON (AP) — A doctor from Lebanon who had arrived in Boston by plane was deported over the weekend without explanation, despite having a U.S. visa and a job as a professor at Brown University, an Ivy League institution recognized as one of the best and most prestigious in the country.
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A judge had ordered that he not be sent back until a hearing was held, but government lawyers said that customs officials “did not receive the notification on time.”
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It is the most recent deportation of a foreign-born person with a US visa in the last week, after a Columbia student who led university protests against the war in Gaza was arrested, and another student had their visa revoked.
The Trump administration also transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador, even when a federal judge issued a temporary order halting deportations.
Who is the doctor deported by the government of Donald Trump?
Doctor Rasha Alawieh, 34, received the visa on March 11 and arrived at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Thursday, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by a cousin in federal court.
Alawieh, who had previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was detained for at least 36 hours, until Friday, and was going to be sent back to Lebanon, according to the complaint. The kidney transplant specialist was going to start working at Brown University, located in Providence, as an assistant professor of medicine.
Federal District Judge Leo Sorokin issued an order on Friday to schedule an in-person hearing on Monday, and for Alawieh to be brought to court.
“Regardless of whether you are in the custody of the United States, the court anticipates proceeding with this hearing,” wrote the judge.
But on Saturday, the cousin presented a motion stating that the customs officials “intentionally disobeyed” the order by sending Alawieh back to Lebanon.
The government lawyers explained in a court document on Monday that the officers of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Boston’s Logan International Airport were notified of the order until Alawieh “had already left the United States”, the judge noted. They requested that the petition be dismissed.
The judge suspended the hearing on his case to give Alawieh’s lawyers time to prepare.
Alawieh had worked at Brown before the issuance of her H1B visa, according to the complaint. She indicates that she has had scholarships and residencies at three universities in the United States.
A university spokesperson said that Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine with a clinical appointment at Brown.
Brown Medicine is a non-profit medical practice that is its own organization and directly serves its own patients. It is affiliated with the medical school of Brown University.
Federal lawmaker Gabe Amo from Rhode Island, a Democrat, said in a statement over the weekend that he is “committed to getting answers from the Department of Homeland Security to provide Dr. Alawieh, her family, her colleagues, and our community the clarity we all deserve.”