A Rhode Island doctor and assistant professor at Brown University’s medical school was deported to Lebanon despite a judge’s order blocking her immediate removal, according to court filings.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, was deported before a federal judge in Boston could hold a hearing on the case. U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, appointed by President Barack Obama, demanded an explanation on Sunday, questioning whether U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had “willfully” disobeyed his order.
Sorokin stated he had received a “detailed and specific” timeline from an attorney representing Alawieh, raising concerns that his ruling may have been violated.
CBP has not disclosed the reason for her removal. The deportation occurred amid the Trump administration’s broader efforts to restrict border crossings and increase immigration enforcement.
CBP spokesperson Hilton Beckham said migrants must prove admissibility and that officers “adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats.”
Alawieh, a Lebanese citizen living in Providence, was detained Thursday upon arriving at Boston’s Logan International Airport from Lebanon, where she had visited family, according to a lawsuit filed by her cousin, Yara Chehab.
She had held a U.S. visa since 2018, initially for a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University. She later completed a fellowship at the University of Washington and trained at the Yale-Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, finishing in June.
While in Lebanon, Alawieh was issued an H-1B visa permitting her to work at Brown University, the lawsuit said. Despite the visa, CBP detained her upon arrival, without providing her family an explanation, according to court filings arguing her rights were violated.
In response, Sorokin issued an order Friday night preventing her removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice and requiring her to appear in court Monday.
However, attorneys for her cousin stated that after the order was issued, Alawieh was flown to Paris and then placed on a flight to Lebanon, which was scheduled to depart Sunday.
On Sunday, Sorokin ordered the government to provide a legal and factual response by Monday morning and to preserve all communications regarding Alawieh’s detention and deportation.
The case comes amid broader concerns about whether the Trump administration is complying with court rulings that block parts of its immigration policies.
The administration also announced Sunday that it had deported hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador under rarely used wartime powers, despite a federal judge’s order temporarily halting such deportations.
