A Brown University assistant professor and doctor was deported over the weekend from Boston to Lebanon after federal agents found photos of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s supreme leader on her cell phone, a source familiar with the case told CNN.
Following Dr. Rasha Alawieh’s return Thursday from a visit to Lebanon, federal agents at Boston Logan International Airport found the photos, the source familiar said. It was not immediately clear why officers were examining her phone.
The existence of the photos was outlined in a court filing Monday obtained by CNN affiliate WCVB. “In explaining why these multiple photos were deleted by her one to two days before she arrived at Logan Airport, Dr. Alawieh stated that she did not want to give authorities the perception that she supports Hezbollah and the Ayatollah politically or militarily,” the filing reads, per WCVB.
“I think if you listen to one of his sermons, you would know what I mean,” Alawieh allegedly told the agents, according to WCVB’s copy of the filing. “He is a religious, spiritual person. As I said, he has very high value. His teachings are about spirituality and morality.”
Alawieh, 34, acknowledged to federal agents she attended Nasrallah’s February 23 funeral – a public event attended by thousands – during her visit, said the source.
“Our client is in Lebanon, and we’re not going to stop fighting to get her back in the US to see her patients, and we’re also going to make sure that the government follows the rule of law,” Stephanie Marzouk, an attorney representing Alawieh’s family in a federal complaint fighting the deportation, told reporters Monday outside a Boston courthouse.
Alawieh described Nasrallah, who was killed last September by an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, to the officers as a highly regarded religious leader and told them she follows his religious and spiritual techniques but not his politics, the source said.
Alawieh also acknowledged to immigration officers Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, according to the source. The group, which enjoys broad support among Shia Muslims across the Middle East, is a designated terror organization in the US and many other Western countries.
“Last month, Rasha Alawieh traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah – a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree,” a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said.
“A visa is a privilege not a right – glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is commonsense security,” the spokesperson added.
In a separate statement, Customs and Border Protection said foreigners traveling to the US with a visa are not guaranteed entry, adding that border patrol agents have final say on who can enter the country following security checks.
“Foreign nationals who promote extremist ideologies or carry terrorist propaganda are inadmissible to the US, plain and simple,” CBP spokesperson Hilton Beckham told CNN Monday.
The US Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts, which is representing the Trump administration in court, declined to comment.
Alawieh’s expulsion came as Republican President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to sharply restrict border crossing and ramp up immigration arrests. It came less than a week after the detention of Columbia University graduate and pro-Palestinian protest organizer Mahmoud Khalil, whose attempted deportation was put on hold by a judge.
Over the weekend, hundreds of immigrants with alleged gang ties were deported by the Trump administration, despite a judge’s order blocking their removal. The White House said the judge’s order came after the migrants, most from Venezuela, had left the US.
Court hearing over removal canceled today
A hearing about Alawieh’s deportation was abruptly canceled Monday morning by a federal judge who had ordered immigration officials to give him notice before her removal.
US District Judge Leo Sorokin, an Obama appointee, had been monitoring the case pursuant to a complaint claiming Alawieh had not been given access to an attorney during her detainment. It was filed on Alawieh’s behalf by her cousin, Yara Chehab.
In an order filed just as Monday’s hearing was set to get underway, Sorokin said he had received testimony that “(o)fficers 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.’”
Sorokin on Friday had ordered Alawieh “shall not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without providing the Court 48 hours’ advance notice,” saying it was necessary “to give the Court time to consider the matter.”
Sorokin said he was delaying Monday’s hearing until later this month at the request of Chehab’s attorney after other lawyers representing her withdrew from the case “as a result of further diligence.” The attorneys who withdrew from the case did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
A Lebanese citizen who was living in Rhode Island, Alawieh was approved for an H-1B visa last year to work in the Division of Nephrology at Brown University’s medical school – after studying at three US universities since 2018 – the federal complaint states.
Alawieh in February went to Lebanon for what she thought would be a short visit but was delayed in returning while trying to get paperwork from the US Consulate in Beirut, the court document says.
Her paperwork was approved March 11, but when Alawieh arrived at the Boston airport two days later, she was immediately detained and told she would be sent back to Lebanon the next day, according to the complaint.
Customs and Border Protection “has refused to provide any information on the reason for her detention and expedited removal, nor to confirm the flight,” the initial complaint stated.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations believes Alawieh was “wrongly deported,” it said early Monday.
“Deporting lawful immigrants like Dr. Alawieh without any basis undermines the rule of law and reinforces suspicion that our immigration system is turning into an anti-Muslim, white supremacist institution that seeks to expel and turn away as many Muslims and people of color as possible,” CAIR said Sunday in a statement.
Regarding claims that Alawieh attended Nasrallah’s funeral, CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell told CNN on Monday, “We have not yet seen the filing or any evidence to support this belated claim, but we would defer to her immigration attorney to comment first and foremost before we address it.”
Democratic Rep. Gabe Amo of Rhode Island remains “committed to getting answers” from the Department of Homeland Security on Alawieh’s status, he said on X Sunday.
“We are seeking to learn more about what has happened, but we need to be careful about sharing information publicly about any individual’s personal circumstances,” Brown University spokesperson Brian Clark told CNN on Monday.
The university sent an email Sunday titled, “Travel guidance and resources for international community.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, we encourage international students, staff, faculty and scholars – including US visa holders and permanent residents (or ‘green card holders’) – to consider postponing or delaying personal travel outside the United States until more information is available from the US Department of State,” the guidance reads.
