Community activists have planned a rally in support of deported nephrologist Dr. Rasha Alawieh outside the Rhode Island State House at 6 p.m. Monday, March 17, 2025. (Photo by Alexander Castro/Rhode Island Current)
A Brown Medicine kidney doctor is stuck in Lebanon, 5,400 miles away from the ongoing legal and political battle over her deportation.
A hearing on Dr. Rasha Alawieh’s deportation, initially scheduled for Monday morning in federal court in Boston, was postponed after federal immigration authorities submitted new documents in court attempting to link the 34-year-old Lebanese doctor to extremist terrorist group Hezbollah, according to news reports. Meanwhile, community activists have planned a rally in support of Alawieh outside the Rhode Island State House for 6 p.m. Monday.
Alawieh 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 Beirut, according to court documents.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they detained Alawieh in the Boston airport after seeing photos and messages on her phone showing Hezbollah leaders. Agents took her phone, holding her in custody for 36 hours, prompting her cousin to turn to the courts for help. The petition filed late Friday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts initially sought to prevent Alawieh’s deportation.
U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorkin issued an emergency order Friday night, barring immigration officials from deporting Alawieh until a hearing Monday morning. But the court order did not reach immigration officials in time, and by Monday morning, Alawieh had been forcibly flown back to Lebanon, according to court documents.
The high-profile deportation case comes amid a wave of orders by the federal administration forcing immigrants back to their native countries, including in cases in defiance of federal court orders and despite having legal visas. A New Hampshire man with a green card was also detained by immigration officials at Logan Airport last week and is now being held in custody at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls, Rhode Island.
“There’s no question, the Trump administration is on a rampage against immigrants in this country, whether they’re undocumented or not,” Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, said in an interview. “What is disturbing about what is going on is there is almost a complete lack of any due process. These individuals are just being shipped on a plane somewhere far away.”
Brown offered legal assistance to Alawieh, but so far, is not involved in the case, he said.
Change of attorneys
A hearing in Alawieh’s case scheduled for Monday morning was postponed because Alawieh’s legal representation changed, and her new lawyers wanted time to prepare, according to the court docket. Sorkin on Monday also granted requests by her original attorneys to seal documents submitted by federal immigration officials. But not before the documents were obtained by various news outlets, which due to federal immigration law, were only able to be viewed in-person at the Boston courthouse Monday. Rhode Island Current was not able to obtain copies of the documents.
However, news reports said the filings linked Alawieh to Lebanese militant group Hezebollah through photos and videos on her phone of extremist leaders, as well as an interview transcript in which she allegedly praised the religious commitment of key group leaders, though she did not say she supported their political efforts.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a post on X Monday alleged that Alawieh was in Lebanon to attend the funeral of the late Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. Hundreds of thousands of people packed into a stadium in Beirut for Nasrallah’s Feb. 23 funeral, nearly five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.
“Alawieh openly admitted to this to CBP officers, as well as her support of Nasrallah,” the post stated. “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.”
The White House reposted the comment on its own X account an hour later, adding a photo showing President Donald Trump waving from inside a fast food drive-thru window that reads, “Come back soon.”
Hilton Beckham, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, defended immigration officials’ actions in an emailed response on Monday.
“Foreign nationals who promote extremist ideologies or carry terrorist propaganda are inadmissible to the U.S., plain and simple,” Beckham said. “A visa does not guarantee entry—CBP has the final authority after conducting rigorous security checks. Officers act swiftly to deny entry to those who glorify terrorist organizations, advocate violence, or openly support terrorist leaders and commemorate their deaths. Anyone found with extremist materials linked to a U.S.-designated terrorist group will be removed.”
Golnaz Fakhimi, the legal director for D.C.-based Muslim Advocates, is now representing Alawieh and acknowledged requests for comment Monday but was not immediately available.
Alawieh’s coworkers and family painted a very different picture of the young doctor, who had been working and studying in the United States since 2018, according to court documents. After finishing her residency at the American University of Beirut, Alawieh completed a series of fellowships in nephrology in the U.S. 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.
But she had already begun work as a local doctor specializing in kidney transplants, based out of Brown Medicine’s East Providence offices, and partnering with Rhode Island Hospital for consult work on kidney transplant patients, according to news reports.
“The Division of Nephrology at Brown Medicine is extremely distressed at this treatment of their colleague,” the March 14 petition seeking to stop her deportation states. “She is an assistant professor and has serious responsibilities. Her colleagues have been covering for her, but that is no solution. Dr. Alawieh is an outstanding academic in Transplant Nephrology, and she is needed at Brown Medicine. “
George Bayliss, the medical doctor for Brown Medicine’s transplant division, did not immediately respond to inquiries Monday.
Health system suggests international staff postpone travel out of country
Alawieh also had a clinical appointment at Brown University. Brian Clark, a Brown University spokesperson, declined to comment except to say the university is “seeking to understand more about what has happened.”
Kelly Brennan, a spokesperson for Brown University Health, which owns Rhode Island Hospital where Alawieh practices as a member of the kidney transplant team, said Monday that the deportation will not disrupt patient care.
“We strongly encourage international staff members, including U.S. visa holders and permanent residents (i.e., ‘green card holders’), to consider postponing or delaying any travel outside the United States until further information regarding reentry requirements, restrictions, and travel bans becomes available,” Brennan said in an email. “As this remains an evolving situation of a personal nature, we are unable to provide further comment at this time.”
Thomas Brown, a Cranston-based attorney who was quoted in other news reports due to his work with immigration and visa issues for Brown Medicine, also declined to comment Monday because he is no longer representing Alawieh in the case.
Sorkin’s order Monday gives the attorneys with U.S. Customs and Border Protection until March 24 to supplement their response in the case. Attorneys for Alawieh have until March 31 to respond to the federal government’s motion to toss the case.
An online petition started by Providence City Councilor John Goncalves calls for Alawieh’s return, urging Rhode Island’s congressional delegation to call for a “full investigation” into why immigration officials ignored Sorkin’s order not to deport her.
“If this can happen to a respected doctor, it can happen to anyone,” the petition states.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Amo in a statement Sunday he was in communication with local and national lawyers about the case.
“I remain committed to getting answers from the Department of Homeland Security to provide Dr. Alawieh, her family, her colleagues, and our community the clarity we all deserve,” Amo said.
Other members of Rhode Island’s delegation, U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and U.S. Rep. Seth Magaziner, did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.
This story will be updated.
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