A doctor and teacher was deported after she returned from a trip to Lebanon despite having a valid visa from the United States, according to a judicial request filed In his name.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Brown Medicine assistant professor, celebrated an H-1B visa when she traveled to her country of origin to visit her family, according to the petition, which was presented in a federal court for a cousin who learned of her situation.
Judicial documents alleged that when he returned to the United States at the end of last week, he was arrested at Boston Logan International Airport for 36 hours before they sent it back to Lebanon this weekend in violation of the order of a federal judge to stop his deportation.
The initial request on Friday stated that customs and border protection had been arrested “without any justification”, during which Alawieh had been incontractable and unable to access legal advisor.
“CBP has refused to provide information about the reason for its accelerated arrest and extraction, or confirm the flight,” said the petition.
The same day, the United States District Court for the Massachusetts district ordered that Alawieh was not withdrawn from the State without 48 hours of warning and a reason to “give time to the Court to consider the matter.”
A Alawieh lawyer confirmed that he is now back in Lebanon, but refused to comment more.
Customs and border protection said in a statement sent by email: “The aliens that arrive have the burden of establishing admissibility to the United States.”
“Our CBP officers adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats, using rigorous projects, investigations, strong associations for the application of the law and waters inspection skills to maintain threats outside the country,” said Hilton Beckham, commissioner of CBP Public Affairs, in the statement.
A notice of violation of the court order filed on Saturday said that CBP “had a real notice of the order of this court and deliberately disobey the order of this court.” In addition, he requested an order to return Massachusetts to Alawieh immediately and program an emergency audience as soon as possible.
Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen, received an H-1B visa for his job at Brown Medicine, said the petition. He obtained his doctor’s degree from the American University of Beirut in 2015 and completed his residence in 2018 at the Medical Center of the American University of Beirut.
Since he entered the United States with a J-1 visa in 2018, Alawieh completed programs at Ohio State University, Washington University and Yale Waterbury’s internal medicine program before starting its assistant teacher at Brown.
“The Brown Medicine nephrology division is extremely distressed by this treatment of its colleague,” said the judicial request. “She is an assistant teacher and has serious responsibilities. His colleagues have been covering for her, but that is not a solution. ”
Brown University spokesman Brian Clark said in a statement that the university is “seeking to learn more about what has happened, but we must be careful by sharing publicly sharing information about the personal circumstances of any individual.”
The next hearing is scheduled for Monday morning.
