Documents shed light on why Rhode Island doctor was detained, deported

• Dr. Rasha Alawieh was returning to the U.S. from Lebanon when she was detained at Logan Airport and deported.
• Alawieh was in the U.S. legally and working with a H-1B visa and a court order should have kept her from being deported.
• A judge order federal authorities to a hearing Monday to explain RI doctor's deportation.

A federal judge has postponed a hearing to allow U.S. Customs and Border officials to respond to allegations they “willfully” disobeyed his order not to deport a Rhode Island doctor until he could review her case.

Documents filed in federal court ahead of the hearing allege that it was the contents of Dr. Rasha Alawieh's cellphone that led to her detention, and ultimate deportation, from Logan Airport in Boston.

Federal authorities say in court documents filed in the deportation case of Alawieh, 34, that customs and border officials found "sympathetic photos and videos" of Hezbollah leaders on her cell phone.

They also found "various other Hezbollah militants" in the deleted photo folder of her cell phone.

"With the discovery of these photographs and videos CHP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined," the documents allege.

"As such CBP canceled her visa and deemed Dr. Alawieh inadmissible to the United States."

On Friday U.S. District Judge Leo T. Sorokin in Massachusetts issued an order that Alawieh not be deported without giving the court 48 hours' notice.

Despite his order, the Brown Medicine kidney doctor and Lebanese citizen departed for Paris Friday evening. Alawieh arrived back in Lebanon Sunday morning, said a friend and colleague.

U.S. Customs and Border Protections responds to deportation of Dr. Alawieh

On Sunday evening, for the first time since the incident began Thursday and ignited a wave of outrage on the part of Alawieh supporters, Hilton Beckham, the assistant commissioner of public affairs for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), issued a statement regarding the case.

Beckham said: “Arriving aliens bear the burden of establishing admissibility to the United States. Our CBP officers adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats, using rigorous screening, vetting, strong law enforcement partnerships, and keen inspectional skills to keep threats out of the country. CBP is committed to protecting the United States from national security threats.”

Alawieh was in the U.S. on a valid H-1B visa

Thomas S. Brown, a lawyer who handles immigration and visa issues for doctors affiliated with Brown Medicine, said Alawieh was returning to the U.S. on a valid H-1B visa she had recently acquired at the American consulate in Lebanon.

The H-1B visa allows employers like Brown Medicine to sponsor highly skilled foreign citizens to work in “specialty occupations.”

Alawieh, who had studied and worked in the United States for six years and in Rhode Island since last July worked at Rhode Island Hospital evaluating potential kidney transplant recipients and followed the progress of those patients after their procedures, said Dr. George Bayliss, the transplant division’s medical director.

Alawieh was deported despite a court order to keep her in the country

On Friday, while Alawieh remained detained at Logan, her cousin, Yara Chehab, filed a complaint in U.S. District Court, Massachusetts against officials in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

In the complaint, Chehab said federal authorities had unlawfully detained her cousin “without any justification and without permitting [her] access to their counsel.”

In a subsequent motion filed Saturday, Alawieh’s lawyers alleged “that Customs and Border Patrol received actual notice of the court’s order [giving the court 48 hours' notice before any deportation] and nonetheless thereafter ‘willfully’ disobeyed the order by sending her out of the United States.”

“These allegations,” Sorokin said Sunday in his order “are supported by a detailed and specific timeline in an under oath affidavit filed by an attorney.”

Judge orders officials to court to explain deportation

Sorokin ordered that federal authorities “shall respond to these serious allegations with a legal and factual response setting forth its version of events. This response is also due by 8:30 a.m. Monday, March 17, 2025, so that it is available to the court and the petitioner in advance of the hearing on Monday.”

That hearing has now been postponed.

Alawieh’s deportation comes amid growing reports of the Trump Administration detaining people who are returning to the United States and hold green cards and visas.

Her supporters have scheduled a protest for Monday at 6 p.m. outside the State House.

Contact Tom Mooney at: tmooney@providencejournal.com

(This story was updated to add new information.)