 "Who is Rasha Alawieh, the doctor US deported over pics of Hassan Nasrallah?")
The United States has deported Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese doctor and assistant professor at Brown University’s medical school, after finding what authorities described as “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah’s former leader Hassan Nasrallah in her phone.
Alawieh, 34, was detained at Logan International Airport in Boston last Thursday (March 13) on her return from a trip to Lebanon. She was held for at least 36 hours before being deported to Lebanon on Saturday, despite a federal judge’s order to delay her removal.
The US Department of Homeland Security confirmed the deportation on Monday. Re-sharing its post on X, the White House wrote, “Bye-bye Rasha”, adding a photo of US President Donald Trump waving from a drive-thru window in another X post.
Why was she deported?
According to US authorities, Alawieh had photos of terrorist Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in her mobile device’s deleted items folder. During questioning, she admitted to attending Nasrallah’s funeral last month and said she respected him for religious reasons as a Shia Muslim.
“I’m not a political person,” she told US border officials. “I’m a physician. It’s mainly about faith.”
The US government designates Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. US officials mentioned that based on her statements and phone content, they could not determine her “true intentions” in the United States.
Who is Rasha Alawieh?
Rasha Alawieh is a 34-year-old doctor from Lebanon. She had a work visa (H-1B) and was returning to the US after visiting her family in Lebanon. She was stopped at Logan International Airport in Boston on Thursday and kept in detention for at least 36 hours, according to a complaint.
Alawieh is a kidney transplant specialist and was supposed to start a new job as an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University in the US. She had previously worked at Brown and had also trained at three other universities in the US.
On Friday, a federal judge ordered that she be brought to court for a hearing on Monday. However, by Saturday, her cousin claimed that US border officials ignored the judge’s order and sent her back to Lebanon.
She was deported as Donald Trump’s administration continued its strict immigration policies, increasing border restrictions and arrests.
Legal dispute over her deportation
A federal judge had ordered an in-person hearing on Monday to review her case, but by then, she had already been deported. Her cousin accused border officials of ‘willfully’ ignoring the court order.
The Justice Department defended the deportation, saying Alawieh was denied re-entry based on what customs officers found on her mobile device and her statements at the airport.
[With inputs from Reuters]