An assistant professor from Brown University’s medical school with a valid visa was deported from the U.S. despite a judge’s order that she was not to be removed.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of former President Obama, was set to hold a hearing Monday after Rasha Alawieh was deported to Lebanon but canceled it shortly before it began. The deportation came after Sorokin said Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist, was to stay in the country.
Alawieh was detained Thursday after returning to the U.S. following travel abroad. Sorokin on Friday ordered the government to provide 48 hours notice before deporting her, but she was then put on a flight out of the country.
Her attorneys argue the federal government “willfully” disobeyed the court order.
“These allegations are supported by a detailed and specific timeline in an under oath affidavit filed by an attorney. The government shall respond to these serious allegations with a legal and factual response setting forth its version of events,” the judge said.
According to court documents, the federal government says Customs and Border Patrol officers did not receive notice of the court order to keep Alawieh in the country until after she was deported and “[a]t no time would CBP not take a court order seriously or fail to abide by a court’s order.”
On Sunday night, Alawieh’s attorneys withdrew as her counsel “as a result of further diligence,” and her new team says it needs more time to prepare. It is not immediately clear what led to her lawyers withdrawing from the case.
Given all those developments, Sorokin decided to postpone the hearing.
Alawieh was on a H-1B visa that allowed her into the country to work at Brown.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a post on the social platform X that Alawieh went to Lebanon to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, “a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree. Alawieh openly admitted to this to CBP officers, as well as her support of Nasrallah.”
The incident comes after the federal government began a deportation crackdown on college campuses starting with Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who recently graduated from Columbia University with a master’s degree.
Khalil, described as the lead negotiator during the pro-Palestinian encampment at the university, is currently held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as he awaits a court hearing.
“Many are not students, they are paid agitators. We will find, apprehend, and deport these terrorist sympathizers from our country — never to return again. If you support terrorism, including the slaughtering of innocent men, women, and children, your presence is contrary to our national and foreign policy interests, and you are not welcome here,” President Trump wrote on social media.
The DHS also recently searched two Columbia dorm rooms and revoked the student visa of another student at the school.
Updated at 12:57 p.m. EDT
