March 17 (UPI) — A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to respond to allegations that it deported a Brown University professor despite being prohibited from doing so.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Thursday morning. According to the complaint filed Friday, Alawieh a Lebanese citizen, had been issued an H-1B visa days earlier to work as an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.
The same day the complaint was filed, Judge Leo Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued an order barring Alawieh’s deportation without providing the court 48 hours’ notice.
Sorokin said Sunday in a filing obtained by Axios that despite the order, Alawieh appears to have been removed.
In the filing, Sorokin, a President Barack Obama appointee, ordered the Trump administration to respond to the claims that it willfully disobeyed the court order by 8:30 a.m. EST Monday, ahead of a previously scheduled 10 a.m. hearing on the matter.
“The government shall respond to these serious allegations with a legal and factual response setting forth its version of events,” Sorokin said in the filing.
“The government shall preserve all of the documents bearing on Dr. Alawieh’s arrival and removal since the issuance of the visa described in the Petition, including emails and text messages.”
According to the complaint, Alawieh moved to the United States in 2018 to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University. She then completed a fellowship at the University of Washington before moving to the Yale Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, which she completed in June.
She was in the United States on a J-1 visa.
She was then offered the assistant professorship by Brown University. She had traveled to Lebanon in February for a brief visit but was unable to obtain a visa until March 11.
The reason for her detention was not immediately clear.
The complaint states Alawieh was unlawfully detained and was denied access to counsel.
“Despite repeated requests from Dr. Alawieh’s family members and a volunteer attorney, CBP refuses to provide any justification for their detention, refuses to allow the attorneys to talk to Dr. Alawieh and refuses to provide assurances that Dr. Alawieh will not be deported to Lebanon,” it states.
The Council on A,erican-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, responded to the deportation by calling on the Trump administration to immediately readmit her.
“As a U.S. resident for six years and a doctor working for the Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension at Brown Medicine, Dr. Alawieh played a critical role in treating countless patients who needed treatment by a specialist,” CAIR said in a statement.
“Deporting lawful immigrants like Dr. Alawieh without any basis undermines the rule of law and reinforces suspicion that our immigration system is turning into an anti-Muslim, White supremacist institution that seeks to expel and turn away as many Muslims and people of color as possible.”
