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Trump administration officials say it was only, quote, "common sense security" to prevent a Rhode Island doctor from returning to the U.S. from her native Lebanon. As NPR's Tovia Smith reports, officials say she was found with what they call extremist materials linked to a U.S.-designated terrorist group.
TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist at a medical center affiliated with Brown University, was in the U.S. on an H-1B visa when she went to visit Lebanon and got stopped at Boston's Logan Airport trying to return. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, says immigration officers found evidence that Alawieh went to the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, which is a U.S.-designated terrorist group, and that she supports him. Court documents cited by multiple news outlets, described photos and videos of the funeral on her phone in the deleted items folder. McLaughlin called Nasrallah, quote, "a brutal terrorist" responsible for killing hundreds of Americans, and she said glorifying and supporting such terrorists is grounds for denying a visa. Alawieh's lawyer, Stephanie Marzouk, declined to comment on those specific allegations, but she says Alawieh should not have been sent back to Lebanon and denied due process.
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STEPHANIE MARZOUK: We're not going to stop fighting to get her back in the U.S. to see her patients, where she should be, and we're going to try to make sure the government follows the rule of law.
SMITH: Marzouk says they tried to stop Alawieh's plane from leaving up to the very last minute, but were basically stonewalled by administration officials even though they had a court order saying Alawieh could not be deported without advance notice. Government attorneys deny any wrongdoing. Meantime, several colleagues and acquaintances showed up at court in Boston this morning to show their support for Alawieh, including Kathleen Henderson.
KATHLEEN HENDERSON: I think she's being treated terribly, and I think she has rights. She was here legally. She had a visa when she returned. They are harassing her.
SMITH: A federal judge had scheduled a hearing to consider whether immigration officials willfully disobeyed his order, but he canceled it after one of Alawieh's attorneys abruptly quit the case and a new one wanted time to catch up. Plus, the judge said, Alawieh was already gone so it was no longer urgent.
Tovia Smith, NPR News, Boston.
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