A federal judge in Massachusetts canceled a hearing Monday regarding a Rhode Island transplant surgeon and Brown University assistant professor deported Friday over her alleged support for Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorists and Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, a Barack Obama appointee, canceled the hearing regarding the deportation Friday of Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Lebanese national in the U.S. on an H-1B work visa, after most of the attorneys associated with the plaintiff withdrew from the case, WFXT-TV in Boston reported.
Sorokin ordered Friday that Alawieh be kept in the U.S. and brought to a court hearing Monday, but he wrote Monday morning that "Dr. Alawieh is now in Lebanon," CBS News reported.
On Sunday, Sorokin ordered the government to explain why Alawieh was removed. Attorneys for her family claimed the government "willfully" disobeyed his order by deporting Alawieh.
Customs and Border Protection said its officers at Logan Airport in Boston, where Alawieh was detained following her return from Lebanon, did not receive notice of the order until after Alawieh "had already departed the United States," WFXT reported, citing Sorokin's order Monday.
Sorokin was expected to hear a habeas corpus petition filed by a cousin of Alawieh's that argued Alawieh had a valid visa to enter the country. He was also expected to question federal authorities over Alawieh's deportation.
Sorokin is giving the government a week to provide the court with more information. Yara Chehab, who filed the habeas corpus petition on behalf of her cousin, alleged customs officials "willfully" disobeyed Sorokin's order, will have until March 31 to respond to the government's request to dismiss the petition, according to WFXT.
The Department of Homeland Security told CBS News on Monday that Alawieh told CBP officers that she traveled to Beirut to attend the Feb. 23 funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed after an Israeli airstrike in September.
"A visa is a privilege not a right — glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied," the DHS said. "This is common sense security."
Court documents filed ahead of the planned hearing alleged contents on Alawieh's phone, including deleted photos of Nasrallah, led to her detention and deportation, WFXT reported. Khamenei was featured in other photos.
CBP officials alleged that Alawieh deleted the photos one or two days before arriving in the U.S. because she didn't want to suggest she followed their policies politically or militarily.
Alawieh allegedly said her interest in Nasrallah was in his standing as a religious figure within the Shia Muslim community, as opposed to his role as a terrorist, CBS News reported, citing court documents.