US deports Lebanese doctor for attending Sayyed Nasrallah's funeral
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Dr. Rasha Alawieh has been deported from the United States despite a judge blocking her immediate expulsion from the country.
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Lebanese doctor Rasha Alawieh in an undated photo (Social Media)
The US Department of Homeland Security announced that the decision to deport Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese physician, came after she traveled to Lebanon to attend Martyr Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's funeral procession in February.
In a statement issued by the Homeland Security Department, it was disclosed that Dr. Alawieh explicitly told the immigration authority that she was visiting her home country to attend the funeral.
Although a US judge temporarily blocked the decision, the US government greenlit her deportation.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh is a transplant surgeon from Lebanon, a Professor at Brown, trained in USA, here on a valid H1-B, zero criminal record, & Trump regime arrested her anyway.
— Qasim Rashid, Esq. (@QasimRashid) March 16, 2025
A judge ordered a block to her deportation. Trump deported her anyway. We are in a Constitutional crisis.
Amid her arrival to the United States on Thursday, Alawieh, 34, was denied re-entry at Boston's Logan International Airport. She was subsequently put on an aircraft bound for Paris.
Dr. Alawieh, who formerly lived in Providence, has been with Brown Medicine since July of last year. She has been studying and working in the United States for about six years.
The US embassy in Lebanon had issued her an H-1B visa, which is granted to people in specialty professions requiring expertise. Thomas S. Brown, her attorney, stated the visa was valid until mid-2027.
A family member realized she was being deported on Friday and alerted her attorneys, according to a federal court petition filed on her behalf.
The petition states that Alawieh, who also works for Brown Medicine's Division of Kidney Disease and Hypertension, is being held "without any justification" or access to legal counsel. The lawsuit states that her visa was authorized by the State Department and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Service, but it is unknown why she was detained by US Customs and Border Protection.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen and assistant professor at #BrownUniversity’s medical school, was deported despite a federal judge’s order blocking her immediate removal from the US, according to court papers.
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) March 17, 2025
The deportation of Dr. Alawieh is set to be the focus of a… pic.twitter.com/96XoPs5Hjm
