Deported Brown University doctor had sympathetic photos of Hezbollah leaders on her phone, DOJ says
The Trump administration deported a Lebanese doctor who was an assistant professor at Brown University’s medical school after investigators found “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders on her phone, the Department of Justice said.Dr.Rasha Alawieh, 34, was arrested after arriving at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Thursday.
Her family claimed that officials provided no reason for her deportation, and they argued her rights were being violated because she had an active visa to live and work in the US.The DOJ has since alleged that the Providence, Rhode Island, resident has an affinity for the Lebanon-based terror group, with pictures and videos of Hezbollah leaders found in the deleted items folder of her cellphone, Politico reported.Alawieh also allegedly admitted that she attended a funeral for slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah last month while visiting family in Lebanon, according to the feds.She claimed she attended the ceremony “from a religious perspective” and not a political one, according to Politico.“CBP questioned Dr.
Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” Assistant US Attorney Michael Sady wrote in a filing to the court on Monday.Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Hilton Beckham said the burden of establishing proof of admissibility into the US falls on the immigrant, adding that the agency’s officers “adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats.”The agency, however, did not immediately state what “threat” Alawieh posed, nor why she was chosen for removal, leading her family to file a lawsuit.US District Judge Leo Sorokin had ordered the CBP to halt the Ivy League professor’s deportation until a court hearing on Monday, but the doctor was flown out of the country in a seemingly deliberate violation of the judge’s orders.“The government shall respond to these serious allegations with a legal and factual response setting ...