Newsman: Federal authorities say they deported Lebanese doctor Rasha Alawieh 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.
CBP official John Wallace said in a sworn declaration filed with the court that CBP officials at Boston’s Logan Airport hadn’t received formal notification of the court order through official channels before Alawieh was put on an Air France flight bound for Paris Friday night.
“At no time, would CBP not take a court order seriously or fail to abide by a court’s order,” Wallace wrote, while adding that the agency only acts on orders it gets from its legal counsel or is able to verify with that counsel.
“Due to the extremely close timing between the issuance of the court order in this case and the boarding time of [the Air France flight] CBP did not receive the court’s orders until after the flight departed the United States,” Wallace added.
Alawieh has lived in the United States since 2018, when she came on a student visa to take part 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.
Alawieh arrived at the Boston airport Thursday and was questioned by CBP officers who searched her phone and would not immediately admit her to the U.S., according to the government’s chronology.
On Thursday, a CBP officer interrogated Alawieh about her views of and potential ties to Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and religious group that has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. for more than two decades.
Asked about the photos and videos of Nasrallah and other leaders connected to Hezbollah, Alawieh said she’s apolitical and had the images because those leaders are revered by many Shia Muslims.
“So I have a lot of Whatsapp groups with families and friends who send them. So I am a Shia Muslim and he is a religious figure. He has a lot of teachings and he is highly regarded in the Shia community,” Alawieh said, according to the transcript filed in court Monday.
“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,” she added about the sheikh, who was killed last September in an Israeli airstrike on his bunker in the Beirut suburbs.
Asked if she supported Nasrallah “in any way,” Alawieh initially denied doing so but later appeared to acknowledge that she supported and admired him “from a religious perspective.”
When questioned about photos of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Alawieh said that was typical of Shia Muslims. “It has nothing to do with politics,” the physician added. “It’s a purely religious thing. He’s a very big figure in our community.”
Asked why she appeared to have deleted some photos a day or two before arriving in the U.S., Alawieh replied, “Because I don’t want the perception. But I can’t delete everything. But I know I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not related to anything politically or militarily.”
Alawieh also said she probably did know about the U.S. terrorism designation for Hezbollah. “I’m not much into politics, but yes,” she said.
It’s not clear how CBP officials obtained Alawieh’s phone or whether it was locked, but any property a traveler has with them when entering the U.S. is subject to inspection by the authorities.
After the interview, CBP officials informed Alawieh 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. Justice Department lawyers said the decision was “due to derogatory information discovered during the inspection process.”
With the help of a couple of lawyers, Alawieh’s cousin filed a habeas corpus petition on Friday evening seeking her release. It hit the docket at the U.S. District Court in Boston at 6:43 p.m., court records show.
About a half hour later, at 7:18 p.m., Sorokin issued an order that Alawieh “shall not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without providing the Court 48 hours’ advance notice of the move and the reason therefor.”
In a court filing made public Monday, a member of the legal team representing Alawieh said she was at the airport Friday night as the court petition was filed and informed a CBP officer who identified himself only as Officer Collins about it. When the judge’s order came through a short time later, attorney Clare Saunders said she wasn’t able to reach that CBP official or any other at the airport.
“I yelled loudly and repeatedly through the office trying to get an officer’s attention, in case Officer Collins or one of his colleagues were simply at the back, in a portion not visible from the front portion of the office. I received no response,” Saunders wrote. “During the 20 minutes I was waiting at the CBP office, I called the number listed on the handwritten sign approximately 8 more times.”
Saunders said she also went to a state police kiosk and pressed the emergency button around 7:55 p.m.
Wallace’s declaration says CBP officers walked Alawieh to the gate around 7:20 p.m.
Flight tracking databases show Air France’s Boston to Paris flight departed the gate Friday at 7:43 p.m., two minutes early, and took off at 7:59 p.m.
Judge Sorokin issued a follow-up order Sunday that called Alawieh’s lawyers’ claims of non-compliance with the earlier court order “serious allegations.” The judge, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, demanded a written response by Monday and ordered the government to preserve all relevant documents.
However, due in part to a shake-up on Alawieh’s legal team, Judge Sorokin postponed the hearing shortly before it was to begin.
In a court filing Sunday night, Alawieh’s immigration lawyer, Stephanie Marzouk, asked to delay the hearing.
“While petitioner intends to seek to return to the United States at the earliest opportunity, she is no longer in transit … Petitioner has recently changed counsel. New co-counsel is expected to join the case shortly, but will require additional time to adequately prepare for the hearing,” Marzouk wrote.
After the postponement Monday, Marzouk told reporters outside the courthouse: “We’re not going to stop fighting to get her back in the U.S. to see her patients, and we’re also going to make sure that the government follows the rule of law.”
In a court filing Sunday, a lawyer who agreed to represent Alawieh last week in the federal court case, John Freedman, said he and several colleagues at firm Arnold & Porter were seeking to withdraw from the case “as a result of further diligence.” He did not elaborate.
