Lawyers for deported R.I. kidney doctor file amended lawsuit challenging her ‘unlawful' expedited removal
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'For Dr. Alawieh, a visibly Muslim woman, the government has thumbed its nose at these constitutional requirements,' Golnaz Fakhimi, legal director of Muslim Advocates, said in a statement Tuesday. We hope this lawsuit can right those wrongs and return Dr. Alawieh to the vulnerable patients in Rhode Island who need and deserve her care.'
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The lawsuit says the Constitution's Appointment Clause requires that federal officials 'with significant power over people's lives' be appointed by the president or department heads, but it said the border agents at Logan wield 'unilateral and administratively unreviewable authority' without any such appointments.
'Dr. Alawieh's experience exemplifies why permitting non-appointed employees to make life-altering decisions, insulated from any review, is inconsistent with our constitutional system,' the lawyers wrote.
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The lawyers also argued that Alawieh should have been granted 'a fair hearing' before an immigration judge. Instead, border agents cancelled her employment-based visa and subjected her to expedited removal despite court order forbidding her removal from the District of Massachusetts, the lawyers wrote.
'For Dr. Alawieh — someone with over six-and-a-half years of lawful presence and ties to the United States, seeking to return from brief travel abroad— due process requires the opportunity to be heard by an immigration judge,' her lawyers said.
The lawsuit asks the US District Court in Massachusetts to declare that expedited removal order violates the Constitution's Appointments Clause and/or Suspension Clause.
And it asks that Alawieh be allowed to enter removal proceedings before an immigration judge. Her lawyers are asking that the federal government return Alawieh's H1-B visa, a nonimmigrant visa that allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.
And her lawyers are seeking a chance to argue that 'immigration confinement of Dr. Alawieh within the interior of the United States would be the least restrictive means of addressing any putative danger to the community and/or risk of flight from immigration enforcement that the government claims she presents.'
In a statement, the US Department of Homeland Security has noted Alawieh's attendance at the funeral of
Federal authorities have said border agents at Logan did not receive notice of the court's order barring Alawieh's removal until after she had been removed, and they said they would never ignore a court order.
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Alawieh is now being represented by Muslim Advocates and Marzouk Law LLC.
In a statement, the lawyers said Alawieh was one of only three transplant nephrologists in Rhode Island, and they said she was trying to to return to Providence 'to resume providing life-saving and life-changing care to vulnerable patients there.'
'Doctors, no matter where they're from, are an integral part of our communities,' said Dr. Daniel Walden, a resident physician at Brown University who helped launch a petition to bring Dr. Alawieh back home.
'Dr. Alawieh is a compassionate healthcare professional who provides much-needed care to our community,' Walden said. 'She has stood by her patients, her community, and her colleagues, and it's our turn to stand up for her. We urge the prompt return of Dr. Alawieh so she can continue providing crucial healthcare to Rhode Island.'
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
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