Deported Brown University Professor Had ‘sympathetic Photos’ Of Hezbollah Leaders On Her Phone, Doj Says

BOSTON — Federal authorities say they deported a Lebanese doctor holding an American visa last week after finding “sympathetic photos and videos” of prominent Hezbollah figures in the deleted items folder of her cell phone.

Rasha Alawieh, a physician specializing in kidney transplants and professor at Brown University, also told Customs and Border Protection agents that while visiting Lebanon last month she attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and supported him “from a religious perspective” but not a political one.

“CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sady wrote in a filing to the court.

The claims in court filings submitted Monday by Justice Department lawyers are the first public explanation of why Alawieh, 34, was deported Friday despite holding a U.S. visa typically issued to foreigners with special skills for a job that an employer claims difficulty finding American candidates to fill.

The assertions about Alawieh’s affinity for Hezbollah came shortly before a federal judge was scheduled to hold a hearing Monday on whether the government defied an order he issued Friday requiring that she not be deported without advance notice to the court. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin postponed the hearing Monday morning just before it was to begin. He gave the government another week to submit further information about what happened with Alawieh.

CBP would never intentionally defy a court order, the government said.

CBP official John Wallace said in a sworn declaration filed with the court that CBP officials at Boston’s Logan Airport hadn’t received formal notification of the court order through official channels before Alawieh was put on an Air France flight bound for Paris on Friday night.

Alawieh has lived in the United States since 2018, when she came on a student visa to take part in a nephrology fellowship at Ohio State University. She later attended a similar program at the University of Washington and an internal medicine program at Yale.

Alawieh arrived at the Boston airport Thursday and was questioned by CBP officers who searched her phone and would not immediately admit her to the U.S., according to the government’s chronology. With the help of a couple of lawyers, Alawieh’s cousin filed a habeas corpus petition Friday evening seeking her release. It hit the docket at the U.S. District Court in Boston at 6:43 p.m., court records show.

About a half hour later, at 7:18 p.m., Sorokin issued an order that Alawieh “shall not be moved outside the District of Massachusetts without providing the Court 48 hours' advance notice of the move and the reason therefor.”

In a court filing made public Monday, a member of the legal team representing Alawieh said she was at the airport Friday night as the court petition was filed and informed a CBP officer who identified himself only as Officer Collins about it. When the judge’s order came through a short time later, attorney Clare Saunders said she wasn’t able to reach that CBP official or any other at the airport.

“I yelled loudly and repeatedly through the office trying to get an officer’s attention, in case Officer Collins or one of his colleagues were simply at the back, in a portion not visible from the front portion of the office. I received no response,” Saunders wrote. “During the 20 minutes I was waiting at the CBP office, I called the number listed on the handwritten sign approximately 8 more times.”

Saunders said she also went to a state police kiosk and pressed the emergency button around 7:55 p.m.

Wallace’s declaration says CBP officers walked Alawieh to the gate around 7:20 p.m.

Flight tracking databases show Air France’s Boston to Paris flight departed the gate Friday at 7:43 p.m., two minutes early, and took off at 7:59 p.m.

Sorokin issued a follow-up order Sunday that called Alawieh’s lawyers’ claims of non-compliance with the earlier court order “serious allegations.” The judge, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, demanded a written response by Monday and ordered the government to preserve all relevant documents.

However, due in part to a shake-up on Alawieh’s legal team, it wasn’t immediately clear whether the hearing would go forward.

In a court filing Sunday night, Alawieh’s immigration lawyer, Stephanie Marzouk, asked to postpone the hearing.

“While petitioner intends to seek to return to the United States at the earliest opportunity, she is no longer in transit … Petitioner has recently changed counsel. New co-counsel is expected to join the case shortly, but will require additional time to adequately prepare for the hearing,” Marzouk wrote.

In another court filing Sunday, a lawyer who agreed to represent Alawieh last week in federal court, John Freedman, said he and several colleagues at firm Arnold & Porter were seeking to withdraw from the case “as a result of further diligence.” He did not elaborate.