Latest news with #Alawieh
Boston Globe
08-05-2025
- Boston Globe
Unsealed documents show R.I. doctor being questioned and deported minutes ahead of court order
Advertisement Now, the US District Court in Boston has unsealed Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up The document shows Customs and Border Protection put Alawieh on the flight that left Logan 37 minutes before agents received a court order to prevent her from leaving the US. Earlier that day, US District Court Judge Leo T. Sorokin had issued an order saying Alawieh should not be moved outside of Massachusetts without 48 hours notice. Alawieh's lawyers claimed border agents ignored that order. In a response, prosecutors from the US Attorney's Office wrote that at about 7 p.m. that day, Customs and Border Protection Watch commander John W. Wallace was notified that someone identifying herself as Alawieh's lawyer was at the agency's walk-up window at Logan, saying she'd filed a petition to keep Alawieh from being removed. Advertisement 'As this was only a petition, no action was taken until CBP received an order from the court through the proper channels,' prosecutors wrote, 'or until CBP could be provided with documentation that could be forwarded to CBP legal counsel for their review and guidance.' At 7:20 p.m., Wallace and other officers escorted Alawieh to the boarding area for an Air France Flight 333. She boarded the plane at about 7:30 p.m., and the flight took off at 7:43 p.m., according to court documents. Wallace reported that at about 8:10 p.m., 'an individual' arrived at the walk-up window, opened her laptop, and showed what she said was a court order to keep Alawieh in Massachusetts. Officers told her they needed a copy of the court order. At 8:20 p.m., Wallace was informed that Customs and Border Patrol lawyers had received the court order through the US Attorney's Office. 'At that time, however, Dr. Alawieh had already departed the United States,' prosecutors wrote. 'Based on the above, respondents contend that CBP did not willfully disobey the court's order by effectuating her expedited removal order.' The newly unsealed documents also detail an interview between a Customs and Border Protection officer and Alawieh at Logan on March 13, the day before she was put on the flight to France. She told the officer she had been on vacation and was returning to work as a transplant nephrologist with an H1-B visa. Advertisement The officer said authorities had found photos 'Hezbollah fighters and martyrs' on her cellphone. She explained that she is in WhatsApp groups in which family members and friends shared the photos. The officer asked how she feels about Hezbollah. She said, 'It's a political party in Lebanon. It has its supporters, and I was not involved in any way, but it exists. Many people support it in Lebanon specifically.' The officer asked if she supports Hezbollah and what it stands for. She said, 'I don't.' The officer said her phone's deleted photos folder contained photos and videos of Hezbollah leaders and Iran's supreme leader that appeared to have been deleted within the previous day or two. Alawieh said she had deleted the photos 'because I don't want the perception. Because I can't delete everything. But I know I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not related to anything politically or militarily. Many of these things are related to being a Shia Muslim.' The officer asked if she supports Hassan Nasrallah, the longtime leader of Hezbollah who died in a Sept. 27, 2024, air strike by the Israeli Air Force on Hezbollah's headquarters. She said, 'From a religious perspective.' The officer asked how she feels about Nasrallah. Alawieh said, '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.' The officer asked if she knew that the United States designated Hezbollah as a terrorist organization on Oct. 8, 1997. She said, 'Not about the date, but I guess yes. I'm not much in to politics, but yes.' Advertisement The officer said, 'Help me understand. You know that Nasrallah was the leader of a foreign terrorist organization (Hezbollah), and you hold him in the highest regard as a Sayyed, yet you choose to ignore the terrible acts he advocates for Hezbollah to commit.' Alawieh said, 'I'm not a political person. I'm a physician. It's mainly about faith, especially Shia Muslim. This is where the connection comes. If you were in my place, it's not hard to understand. I'm not involved in any of these things. We have these religious scholars; we have their teachings and their impacts.' The officer asked if she had ever attended a Hezbollah rally. She said, 'I attended the commemoration of the death of Nasrallah during this trip while I was waiting for my visa.' She said she went with her cousins for a couple of hours. The officer told Alawieh that she would not be allowed to re-enter the United States 'because your true intentions could not be determined due to derogatory information discovered during the inspection process.' He said she was going to be 'expeditiously removed' from the country and barred for a period of five years. Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Lawyers challenge customs officials' constitutional authority to deport Brown Medicine kidney doctor
Demonstrators gathered outside of the Rhode Island State House to protest the deportation of Brown Medicine kidney doctor Rasha Alawieh on March 17, 2025 in Providence. (Photo by) Attorneys for Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Brown Medicine kidney doctor deported to her native Lebanon in mid-March, continue to fight to bring her back. An amended complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts Monday contends that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers who refused entry to Alawieh at Boston Logan International Airport lacked the constitutional authority to deport her back to Lebanon. The amended complaint, unavailable electronically due to federal court rules limiting public access to in immigration cases, was shared by Alawieh's attorneys Tuesday. 'The Constitution requires that federal officials with significant power over people's lives be appointed by the President or Department heads, to ensure oversight and accountability for their actions,' Golnaz Fakhimi, legal director of Muslim Advocates, which is co-representing Alawieh in the case, said in a statement. 'For Dr. Alawieh, a visibly Muslim woman, the government has thumbed its nose at these Constitutional requirements.' Cambridge, Massachusetts-based immigration law firm Marzouk Law LLC is also representing Alawieh in the deportation case. Alawieh, 34, was stopped by federal immigration authorities at Boston Logan International Airport on March 13 while heading back to Rhode Island after securing a coveted H-1B work visa from the U.S. Embassy in her native Beirut, according to court documents. An emergency petition filed by her cousin a day later sought to stop Alawieh from being deported from the airport, but Alawieh was already on a flight to Paris by the time the judge's emergency order was received by customs officials. Her abrupt deportation drew a mass protest outside the Rhode Island State House days later, but there has been little public outcry in the nearly two months since she was sent back to Lebanon. An initial hearing scheduled before U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin on March 17 was canceled due to changes in Alawieh's legal representation. The updated complaint asks U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin to declare Alawieh's removal order unlawful, reinstate her H-1B work visa, and allow for removal proceedings before a federal immigration judge. '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 in a statement. Ryan Brissette, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, declined to comment on the updated complaint Tuesday, saying the agency does not comment on pending litigation. Airport customs officials found photos of various Hezbollah leaders on Alawieh's phone, according to court documents filed by the federal administration. Excerpts from the filings were shared on social media by U.S. Homeland Security. She also told customs officials when questioned that she attended a funeral event for the Islamist group's late leader, Hassan Nasrallah, the administration alleged. The stadium event held in Beirut on Feb. 23 drew hundreds of thousands of attendees. Constitutional authority versus politics Alawieh's lawyers acknowledged but gave little credence to Alawieh's religious and political beliefs as they pertain to her deportation. Instead, the updated complaint centers on whether customs officials had the power to decide whether she was allowed to enter the country or not. 'The claims in this case do not concern the questioning,' the amended complaint states. 'This case turns on whether the role and authority of CPB officers and the procedures they applied to their engagement with Dr. Alawieh violated the requirements of the Constitution.' The three federal customs officers stationed at Logan, two of whom are identified by last name only in the amended complaint, were not directly appointed by the president or Congress. Therefore, they lack authority to deport her — violating the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit states. 'For well over a century the Supreme Court has made clear that the power 'to forbid the entrance of foreigners within its dominions, or to admit them only in such cases and upon such conditions as it may see fit to prescribe' is a sovereign responsibility, the 'final determination' of which is entrusted to 'executive officers,'' the complaint states. 'The unchecked devolution of this power to unappointed employees cannot be squared with the Appointments Clause.' The lawsuit also identifies as defendants the anonymous Boston field office director for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection; Peter Flores, acting commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Alawieh is among a growing number of immigrants, including some U.S. citizens and other visa holders, who have been detained and deported since Trump took office. Her case drew public interest in part due to her medical training — Alawieh is one of three transplant nephrologists in Rhode Island, providing life-saving care to patients who now have no doctor, the lawsuit contends. Court documents reveal the Lebanese doctor had been working and studying in the United States since 2018. After finishing her residency at the American University of Beirut, Alawieh completed a series of fellowships in nephrology at Ohio State University, University of Washington and, most recently, Yale University. In June 2024, she was offered an assistant professorship through Brown Medicine Inc.'s Division of Nephrology. The nonprofit, physician-led practice, which is affiliated with the Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine, offered to sponsor Alawieh's H-1B visa for the job. While her petition for the specialty work visa was approved in June 2024, she was not able to obtain the visa itself from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut until March of this year — the purpose of her visit home. In addition to her job at Brown Medicine, the nonprofit, physician-led practice, which is affiliated with the Brown University Warren Alpert School of Medicine, Alawieh also had a clinical fellowship at Brown University, and consulted on cases out of Rhode Island Hospital, which is owned by Brown University Health. 'Doctors, no matter where they're from, are an integral part of our communities,' Dr. Daniel Walden, a resident physician at Brown University who helped launch a petition to bring Dr. Alawieh back home, said in a statement Tuesday. 'Dr. Alawieh is a compassionate healthcare professional who provides much-needed care to our community. 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.' SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Boston Globe
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Lawyers for deported R.I. kidney doctor file amended lawsuit challenging her ‘unlawful' expedited removal
Advertisement '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.' Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up 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. Advertisement 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. Advertisement 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
Boston Globe
03-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘This president is trying to make America white again': An immigration law professor assesses Trump deportation policy
In recent weeks, a Get Rhode Map A weekday briefing from veteran Rhode Island reporters, focused on the things that matter most in the Ocean State. Enter Email Sign Up Now, Gonzalez said, she is advising immigration law clinic clients to avoid traveling, including to international airports within the United States. She said she recently urged a client not to fly to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., because it has an international airport. 'You're at a border when you're at an international airport,' she said. Advertisement Gonzalez said the implications of detaining people with disfavored viewpoints extend beyond those with visas and green cards. 'People view the United States as the country of freedom and liberty. It's not feeling that way these days,' she said. 'US citizens should not think that just because this is happening to immigrants that it wouldn't happen to any one of us who was born inside the United States.' Advertisement She noted that the detained Columbia University student activist, Also, Gonzalez noted that the Tufts Ph.D. candidate, Rümeysa Öztürk, was taken into custody on a Somerville sidewalk by masked ICE agents on March 25 after taking a public pro-Palestinian stance on the Tufts campus. 'That was a kidnapping,' Gonzalez said. 'It's quite scary what happened to her.' The Trump administration revoked Öztürk's student visa, and But Gonzalez said, 'I think this is a fishing expedition to scare students and various universities into submission — don't speak out against our administration or we will find a reason to arrest you.' 'It's a scary time,' Gonzalez said. 'It makes me sad to see universities such as Harvard and Yale, that have a ton of money, bow down to this administration.' She noted Roger Williams University, based in Bristol, still has an Institute for Race and the Law. 'I'm proud to say that,' she said. 'It's important that we remember where we came from as a nation.' Advertisement Gonzalez explained why the Brown Medicine kidney doctor, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, was in a ' She noted Alawieh's H-1B visa was a non-immigrant visa that allowed her to live in the United States for a period of time because she was working in a specialty occupation. While she had studied and worked in the United States for six years, she still had to be re-admitted once she left the country, and while she was in Boston, she was technically at a border at the airport, Gonzalez said. So although Alawieh enjoyed constitutional rights while she was in the United States, she did not have those rights when outside the border at Logan and not yet re-admitted, Gonzalez said. 'She didn't have the right to any due process, as we think of it,' she said. Alawieh could have refused to show immigration officers her cell phone, but authorities then could have refused to admit her on that basis, Gonzalez said. When Alawieh was deported, the White House posted a Facebook message saying, 'Bye-bye, Rasha,' showing Alawieh and President Trump waving from a McDonald's drive-through window. 'That's just gross,' Gonzalez said. 'She was only the third doctor in the entire state of Rhode Island that does this work. It's a detriment to her patients and her students, and I think that's just gross for people to be making fun of such a thing.' Gonzalez said that if people are concerned about the detentions and deportations, they should contact their US senators and representatives. Advertisement 'People need to vote,' she said. 'People need to speak out. And we can't be afraid to speak — we cannot be afraid to speak.' To get the latest episode each week, follow Rhode Island Report podcast , , and other podcasting platforms, or listen in the player above. Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at
Yahoo
31-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Deadline in case of New England doctor deported to Lebanon as Tufts student remains in custody
Monday marks the deadline for attorneys to file a petition in the case of a New England-based professor and doctor who was deported to Lebanon earlier this month as a Tufts University student detained by ICE last week remains in custody. Dr. Rasha Alawieh, one of only three kidney transplant specialists in Rhode Island, has been working at Brown University in Providence for the last six years. Still, despite valid visas and a federal judge's explicit orders, she was sent back to Lebanon on the night of March 14 after she was detained at Boston's Logan Airport. Alawieh, 34, was sent away just as the Trump administration transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador, even though a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations. After her deportation, Alawieh's counsel filed a motion saying customs officials 'willfully' disobeyed the order by sending Alawieh back to Lebanon. Lawyers for the government said in a court filing that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at Logan Airport did not receive notice of the order until she 'had already departed the United States,' the judge noted. They asked that the petition be dismissed. Homeland Security officials said Alawieh 'openly admitted' to supporting a Hezbollah leader and attending his funeral. '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,' Homeland Security said in its statement. When asked why she deleted the photos days before arriving in Boston, Alawieh allegedly told officers: 'Because I didn't want the perception. But I know I'm not doing anything wrong. I'm not related to anything politically or militarily.' We're expecting to hear from Alawieh's attorney through court filings on Monday, responding to the motion to dismiss the petition. An update is also expected in the case of a Tufts graduate student detained by federal immigration authorities. Turkish national Rumeysa Ozturk, a resident of Somerville with a valid F-1 student status, is being held at the South Louisiana ICE Processing Center in Basile, Louisiana. Ozturk's attorney wants her released from ICE custody and her visa restored and has asked the court to assume jurisdiction over the matter. Ozturk's attorney has argued that she hasn't been charged with any crime but believes her arrest and detention is part of a concerted and systemic effort to punish students and others identified with pro-Palestine activism. Ozturk is expected to appear before a judge on April 7. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
