OUSTED: Deported university professor had ‘sympathetic photos’ of Hezbollah leaders on her phone, CAIR fumes

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From Politico: Federal authorities say they deported a Lebanese doctor holding an American visa last week after finding “sympathetic photos and videos” of prominent Hezbollah figures in a deleted items folder on her cell phone.

Rasha Alawieh, a physician specializing in kidney transplants and professor at Brown University, also told Customs and Border Protection agents that while visiting Lebanon last month she attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and followed his teachings “from a religious perspective” but not a political one, according to an official report on her interrogation by an immigration officer.

“CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sady wrote in a court filing Monday.

The claims in court filings submitted Monday by Justice Department lawyers are the first public explanation of why Alawieh, 34, was deported Friday despite holding a U.S. visa typically issued to foreigners with special skills for a job that an employer claims difficulty finding American candidates to fill.

The report explains that Alawieh, now 34, first arrived in the United States in 2018 on a student visa, in order to participate in a nephrology fellowship at Ohio State University. She later attended a similar program at the University of Washington and an internal medicine program at Yale.

According to the New York Post, Alawieh was granted an H-1B visa from the US consulate in Lebanon last summer, authorizing her to work at Brown University.

Alawieh had been visiting family in Lebanon and was returning to her home in Providence, Rhode Island. When she arrived at the Boston airport Thursday, CBP officers searched her phone and found the photos and videos of Nasrallah and other Hezbollah terror leaders in a deleted folder on her phone. She also had photos of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

She claimed that it was nothing political, but insisted that she only had the images because those leaders are revered by many Shia Muslims.

“I think if you listen to one of his sermons you would know what I mean. He is a religious, spiritual person, as I said, he has very high value. His teachings are about spirituality and morality,” Alawieh claimed, referring to Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last September.

The CBP officers kept Alawieh in custody, informing her that she was being denied entry, her visa had been canceled and she was subject to a five-year bar on returning to the U.S.

Alawieh’s cousin reportedly got a couple of lawyers to take legal action Friday evening, and U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, an Obama appointee, issued an order on Friday at 7:18 pm requiring that Alawieh not be deported without advance notice to the court.

But CBP official John Wallace said in a sworn declaration that Alawieh was already on a flight bound for Paris Friday evening before CBP officials at Boston’s Logan Airport received the court order.

After learning about Alawieh’s affinity for Hezbollah Sorokin postponed a scheduled hearing Monday morning just before it was to begin, and gave the government another week to submit further information about what happened to her, Politico reported.

The Department of Homeland Security posted the following statement:

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. Alawieh openly admitted to this to CBP officers, as well as her support of Nasrallah.

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.

Now the Muslim rights activist group, CAIR National, is fuming.  In a statement Monday morning, CAIR announced:

We’re calling on the Trump administration to immediately re-admit @BrownUniversity professor Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who was deported to Lebanon despite holding a valid H-1B visa and a judge’s order barring her removal without 48 hours’ notice.

This blatant disregard for due process raises serious concerns about immigration enforcement targeting Muslim and international scholars. A protest is planned outside the Rhode Island State House at 6 p.m.

Human rights lawyer Qasim Rashid, Esq, raged, “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. A judge ordered a block to her deportation. Trump deported her anyway. We are in a Constitutional crisis.”

Anthony Chang, MD, wrote, “OMG – Bring back Dr. Rasha Alawieh @rasha_alawieh ASAP, as she is an integral member of the Brown Medicine transplant nephrology team. Any delay will harm pts. Have had great interactions with her for the kidney transplant bxs of her patients.”

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