BOSTON — A hearing scheduled for Monday concerning the deportation of a New England-based professor and doctor was canceled after most of the attorneys associated with the plaintiff withdrew from the case.
An order from Boston federal court Judge Leo Sorokin said the request from the attorneys representing 34-year-old Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Brown University Medical School in Rhode Island, came “as a result of further diligence.”
Alaweih, a kidney transplant doctor, was detained in Boston last week after visiting her parents overseas. She was sent back to Lebanon on Friday night despite having an H-1B visa to work for Brown Medicine and Sorokin’s explicit order not to deport her without first giving 48 hours’ notice to the court.
A Brown spokesperson confirmed to Boston 25 News that “Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine with a clinical appointment to Brown University.”
United States Customs and Border Protection said its officers at Logan Airport did not receive notice of the order until after Alawieh “had already departed the United States,” according to Sorokin’s order Monday.
Sorokin was expected to hear a habeas corpus petition, which argued that she had a valid visa to enter the country. He was also expected to question federal authorities over Alaweih’s deportation.
Sorokin is now giving the government one week to provide the court with more information. Yara Chehab, who filed a motion on behalf of her cousin over the weekend in U.S. District Court that alleges customs officials “willfully” disobeyed Sorokin’s order, will have until March 31 to respond to the government’s request to dismiss the petition.
Documents that were filed ahead of the planned hearing alleged contents on Alaweih’s phone, including deleted photos of the leader of the terrorist organization Hezbollah, led to her detention and deportation. Other photos included Ayatollah Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran.
CBP officials alleged in the documents that Alaweih deleted the photos one or two days before arriving in the United States because she didn’t want to suggest she follows their policies politically or militarily.
Alaweih has been working at Brown University in Providence for the last six years.
Brown Medicine is a not-for-profit medical practice that is its own organization and serves its own patients directly. It is affiliated with Brown University’s medical school.
Alaweih was sent away just as the Trump administration transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even though a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations.
A rally will be held in support of Alaweih at the Rhode Island State House lawn on Monday at 6 p.m.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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