Dr. Rasha Alawieh’s Deportation Exposes U.S. Immigration’s Anti-Muslim Bias

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old kidney transplant specialist and assistant professor at Brown University, was deported to Lebanon despite holding a valid H-1B visa and a federal judge’s order explicitly barring her removal. 

Her case has sparked outrage among legal experts, human rights organizations, and academic institutions, particularly within the Muslim community, raising concerns about Islamophobia and the targeting of Muslim professionals under the Trump administration’s immigration policies. 

Dr. Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen, was detained at Boston’s Logan International Airport upon returning from a family visit to Lebanon. 

According to a lawsuit filed by her cousin, Yara Chehab, she was held for 36 hours before being deported. 

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, had issued an order barring her removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours' notice to the court and requiring her to be brought to a scheduled hearing. 

However, Dr. Alawieh was on a flight to Paris, en route to Lebanon, in direct violation of the court order. The government’s justification for her deportation has only added to the controversy. 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) later justified her removal by alleging that Dr. Alawieh had “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah figures on her phone. 

Furthermore, the agency claimed she had attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during her visit to Lebanon. 

“A visa is a privilege, not a right—glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied,” DHS stated.

 However, Muslim advocacy groups argue that attending a funeral, a deeply religious obligation in Islam does not constitute a security threat. 

“This is yet another example of how Muslim immigrants and professionals are unfairly targeted and criminalized,” a spokesperson for an advocacy group said. 

Dr. Alawieh’s deportation has left a significant gap in Rhode Island’s healthcare system. She was one of only three transplant nephrologists in the state, where over 300–400 patients are currently awaiting kidney transplants. 

Dr. Douglas Shemin, a senior physician at Brown Medicine, lamented the loss, calling her an “outstanding clinician, physician, and teacher who eagerly put in long hours without complaining.” 

Her colleague, Dr. Susie Hu, expressed concern over the difficulty of replacing her, stating, “Transplant nephrology is a highly specialized field, and her absence is a major setback to our program.” 

Dr. George Bayliss, a fellow professor, told the reporters, "None of us know why this happened. We are all outraged." 

Dr. Alawieh’s deportation is part of a broader trend under the Trump administration, where immigration enforcement has increasingly targeted university-affiliated Muslim visa holders. 

Recently, Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian protest organizer, was arrested and placed in deportation proceedings. 

Similarly, other Muslim students have had their visas revoked under ambiguous security-related justifications. 

On the same weekend, the administration deported over 250 individuals alleged to be members of Venezuelan and Salvadoran gangs to El Salvador, despite a judge’s order temporarily halting their removal. 

In response to criticism, the White House dismissed judicial interference in deportation matters. 

“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movement of an aircraft,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. 

As Dr. Douglas Shemin, who hired Dr. Alawieh at Brown Medicine, aptly put it, "She has an important fountain of knowledge, a fountain of knowledge that not everyone has."