Justice Department Says Visa-Holding Ivy League Doctor Barred From Re-Entry to the United States After Attending Funeral of Hezbollah Leader in Lebanon

A professor of medicine at Brown University was forced to return to her native Lebanon after allegedly admitting to immigration officials that she had attended the funeral of Hezbollah’s longtime leader during a visit to the country. The Justice Department claims Dr. Rasha Alawieh — a longtime U.S. visa holder — also allegedly had photos and videos on her phone that suggested she was sympathetic to the foreign terrorist organization, according to court documents filed on Monday. Dr. Alawieh returned to Boston on Friday following a visit to her native Lebanon, though she was quickly detained at Logan Airport following an interview with Customs and Border Patrol agents. The Justice Department claims Dr. Alawieh told immigration agents that she had attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, who led Hezbollah from 1992 until he was killed in an Israeli airstrike in September of last year. The Justice Department said in a court filing Monday morning that Dr. Alawieh admitted to attending the funeral. Federal prosecutors further claimed that there were videos and photos “sympathetic” to Hezbollah on her phone, though they provided no specific information in their court filing. “CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” a federal prosecutor wrote in a document to Judge Leo Sorokin of the district of Massachusetts. Dr. Alawieh has held an H1-B visa for years in order to teach and practice medicine here in the United States. The judge has since placed the Justice Department document describing Dr. Alawieh’s alleged Hezbollah sympathies under seal. For unknown reasons, every document on the case’s docket has also been sealed. Judge Sorokin’s clerk did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarification about why the documents were locked. A petition for a writ of habeas corpus was filed by Dr. Alawieh’s cousin, Yara Chehab, while the doctor was still in detention at Logan Airport on Friday. An attorney for Ms. Chehab, Stephanie Marzouk, told reporters outside of the federal district court on Monday that her team is “not going to stop fighting to get [Dr. Alawieh] back in the U.S. to see her patients.” Ms. Marzouk did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the allegations that Dr. Alawieh is sympathetic to Hezbollah. Another lawyer for Ms. Chehab’s writ of habeas corpus, John Freedman, withdrew from the case on Sunday night, according to the Boston Globe “as a result of further diligence,” though he did not elaborate. On Friday, Judge Sorokin ordered that the doctor not be deported without 48 hours notice to the court, though the Justice Department said Dr. Alawieh was already in the air on her way back to Lebanon when immigration officials were made aware of the court order. Judge Sorokin demanded that the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security explain the circumstances of Dr. Alawieh’s deportation before a scheduled hearing on Monday morning. In their document, federal prosecutors included a sworn affidavit from the Customs and Border Patrol commander who oversaw the detention and deportation of Dr. Alawieh. The watch commander swore that he never would have deported Dr. Alawieh had the judge’s order been delivered to agents in time. “Supported by an affidavit from the CBP Watch Commander, the government explains that CBP Officers at Logan did not receive notice of the Court’s Order from their legal counsel until after Dr. Alawieh ‘had already departed the United States’ and that ‘[a]t no time would CBP not take a court order seriously or fail to abide by a court’s order,’” Judge Sorokin writes in a court order. The judge says federal prosecutors have until next Monday to provide him with more details about why Dr. Alawieh should not be allowed to re-enter the United States. Dr. Alawieh’s lawyers will then have seven days to file a reply.

Justice Department Says Visa-Holding Ivy League Doctor Barred From Re-Entry to the United States After Attending Funeral of Hezbollah Leader in Lebanon

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