A last week despite having a valid visa, allegedly told customs agents that she had attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah, the Department of Homeland Security said Monday in a statement.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old Lebanese citizen with a valid H-1B visa, returned to the U.S. after visiting her family, according to the court petition filed by her cousin. She was detained Thursday at Boston Logan International Airport, where she was allegedly held for 36 hours “without any justification,” during which time she was unable to speak to legal counsel or contact others, the petition states.
Homeland Security alleged Monday that Alawieh told agents during her detainment that she had traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, last month.
“A visa is a privilege not a right — glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied,” the agency said.
NBC News was unable to reach an attorney for Alawieh for comment on Monday.
Tens of thousands of people attended the funeral, which was held at the 48,000-seat Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in Beirut.
Nasrallah led Hezbollah, a Lebanese militia and political party, for decades before he was killed by an Israeli strike last year. He was also an Islamic scholar who was seen as a defender of Shia Muslims within Lebanon.
Hezbollah formed in the 1980s after Israel occupied southern Lebanon to oppose Israel’s presence in the country and is a U.S.-designated terror group. Nasrallah and Hezbollah’s close ties to Iran divided Lebanon, and some critics say its support for Hamas in Gaza helped plunge the country into a war with Israel that it could not afford last year.
The petition states that after her airport detainment, Alawieh was sent back to Lebanon — despite an order from the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts that she should not be removed from the state without 48 hours’ notice and a reason to “give the Court time to consider the matter.”
Customs and Border Protection denied accusations that it “willfully” disobeyed the court order, according to court records. Federal prosecutors in the case said the CBP officers did not receive notice of the order until Alawieh had already departed.
Prosecutors said that at no time “would CBP not take a court order seriously or fail to abide by a court’s order.”
A hearing was set to take place on Monday in Boston, but the case was delayed another week. According to court records, Alawieh also retained new legal counsel, who requested time to catch up on the case on Sunday.
Alawieh’s current attorney and her former attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Monday.
According to the initial petition, Alawieh has been in the U.S. since 2018. She obtained her medical degree from the American University of Beirut in 2015 and completed her residency at the university’s medical center.
Alawieh arrived on a J-1 visa and completed programs at Ohio State University, the University of Washington and the Yale Waterbury Internal Medicine Program. Through her work as an assistant professor at Brown, she obtained an HI-B visa. She is a kidney and transplant specialist.
Dr. George Bayliss, who worked closely with Alawieh at Brown’s division of nephrology in East Providence, Rhode Island, said he and other colleagues are outraged and saddened. Bayliss, an associate professor who specializes in kidney disease and hypertension with Alawieh, told NBC News that Alawieh joined last July.
He described Alawieh as an “important part” of their group, and noted that he and other colleagues “want her back.”
“I’m upset. She’s a talented physician. She’s capable. She’s thoughtful. I know her as a thoughtful, caring physician,” he said. “We see her and work with her daily. I don’t have any reason to think that she is a different person otherwise.”
Bayliss said a patient called on Monday to schedule an appointment with Alawieh. After learning Alawieh was not available, he said the patient did not want to see another doctor.
“She takes good care of her patients,” he said.
He said his interactions with Alawieh were only in the hospital, but he has found her to be “unfailingly polite and courteous.”
“She’s a very nice person,” he said.
Rep. Gabe Amo, D-R.I., said his office has been working since Friday to “assess the facts surrounding Dr. Alawieh, including the apparent violation of a federal judge’s order.”
“I remain committed to getting answers from @DHSgov to provide Dr. Alawieh, her family, her colleagues, and our community the clarity we all deserve,” .
The Council on American–Islamic Relations, or CAIR, called on the Trump administration to re-admit Alawieh immediately.
“This blatant disregard for due process raises serious concerns about immigration enforcement targeting Muslim and international scholars,” the organization said in a post on X.
Brown University emailed faculty and staff on Sunday to warn against international travel, including for visa holders and permanent residents, the student newspaper reported.
According , the university’s Executive Vice President for Planning and Policy, Russell Carey, wrote that some might re-consider domestic travel as “the federal policy landscape continues to evolve.”
