Deported Brown University Professor Had Photos of Hezbollah Leaders on Her Phone, DOJ Says

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 a deleted items folder on 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 followed his teachings “from a religious perspective” but not a political one, according to an official report on her interrogation by an immigration officer.

“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 court filing Monday.

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 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 Friday night.

“At no time, would CBP not take a court order seriously or fail to abide by a court’s order,” Wallace wrote, while adding that the agency only acts on orders it gets from its legal counsel or is able to verify with that counsel.

“Due to the extremely close timing between the issuance of the court order in this case and the boarding time of [the Air France flight] CBP did not receive the court’s orders until after the flight departed the United States,” Wallace added.

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.

On Thursday, a CBP officer interrogated Alawieh about her views of and potential ties to Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and religious group that has been designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. for more than two decades.

Asked about the photos and videos of Nasrallah and other leaders connected to Hezbollah, Alawieh said she’s apolitical and had the images because those leaders are revered by many Shia Muslims.

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Asked if she supported Nasrallah “in any way,” Alawieh initially denied doing so but later appeared to acknowledge that she supported and admired him “from a religious perspective.”

When questioned about photos of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Alawieh said that was typical of Shia Muslims. “It has nothing to do with politics,” the physician added. “It’s a purely religious thing. He’s a very big figure in our community.”

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Alawieh also said she probably did know about the U.S. terrorism designation for Hezbollah. “I’m not much into politics, but yes,” she said.

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After the interview, CBP officials informed Alawieh she was being denied entry, her visa had been canceled and she was subject to a five-year bar on returning to the U.S. Justice Department lawyers said the decision was “due to derogatory information discovered during the inspection process.”

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