Colleague says medical professor’s deportation will ‘harm’ patients
A U.S. Department of Justice decision to deport a Brown University professor based on alleged ties to Muslim terrorists has sparked mixed reactions from academics online.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a professor at the university’s medical school, was deported Friday at Logan Airport in Boston while returning from a visit to her home country of Lebanon, Politico reports.
Department officials said customs authorities discovered “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders in a deleted folder on her cell phone, according to the report.
Some academics responded with outrage and others with support for the Trump administration’s actions.
Harvard University psychologist Pamela Paresky accused Politico of de-emphasizing Alawieh’s attendance at a terrorist leader’s funeral while in Lebanon.
They buried the lede!
“Rasha Alawieh, a physician specializing in kidney transplants and professor at Brown University, also told Customs and Border Protection agents that…”
wait for it…
“…she attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.” pic.twitter.com/BTl7Erwwjq
— Pamela Paresky🎗️(Habits of a Free Mind) (@PamelaParesky) March 17, 2025
According to Politico, Alawieh told customs authorities that she had attended Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s funeral while there, and “supported him ‘from a religious perspective’ but not a political one,” according to the report.
Hezbollah is a terrorist group, according to the U.S. government.
Andrew Bostom, a retired Brown University researcher and author of two books on Islam and antisemitism, said the government’s decision was “understandable.”
BREAKING: NOT GOOD & DEPORTATION UNDERSTANDABLE Deported @BrownUniversity transplant nephrologist Rasha Alwieh attended slain annihilationist Jihadist Hasan Nasrallah’s funeral & had ‘sympathetic photos’ of Hezbollah leaders on her phone, DOJ says https://t.co/i3AvbxIxLH pic.twitter.com/g7rXUqfKen
— Andrew Bostom, MD, MS (@andrewbostom) March 17, 2025
Other professors criticized the government’s decision.
Michael Makovi, an economics professor at Northwood University in Michigan, accused the Trump administration of unfairly targeting the doctor.
“Trump has run out of ‘criminals’ to deport, so he deports people like: ‘Alawieh . . . [who] work[s] for Brown Medicine in the Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension. . . . [Her] visa allowed her to be lawfully in the country through the middle of 2027,’” Makovi wrote on X.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Chang, a professor at the University of Chicago medical school, said Alawieh’s deportation will “harm” patients.
“Bring back Dr. Rasha Alawieh … ASAP, as she is an integral member of the Brown Medicine transplant nephrology team. Any delay will harm pts. Have had great interactions with her for the kidney transplant bxs of her patients,” he wrote on X.
At Brown, medical school Professor George Bayliss said professors there are “outraged at Dr. Alawieh’s detention and deportation without due process,” according to The Brown Daily Herald.
“Beyond the affront to democracy, this is wrong on a personal level. She went home to see her parents,” he told the student newspaper. “This deprives her of the chance to practice medicine and deprives her patients of her knowledge and skills.”
CAIR National, a U.S. civil rights organization focused on Muslims, is organizing a protest on her behalf.
We’re calling on the Trump administration to immediately re-admit @BrownUniversity professor Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who was deported to Lebanon despite holding a valid H-1B visa and a judge’s order barring her removal without 48 hours’ notice.
This blatant disregard for due process… pic.twitter.com/Blc38zZUu7
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) March 17, 2025
The Herald reports more:
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin ordered Friday that Alawieh not be moved outside of Massachusetts without providing the court 48 hours’ notice of the move and the reasoning behind it.
Immigration officials did not receive this order before Alawieh was sent on a plane to Paris, according to the Boston Globe. The Herald was unable to independently verify Alawieh’s whereabouts.
Brown Spokesperson Brian Clark said the University is trying to seek more information about the situation. “We need to be careful about sharing information publicly about an individual’s personal circumstances,” he wrote in an email to The Herald.
Alawieh has a visa and has been living in the U.S. since 2018; she is challenging the decision in court. A hearing scheduled for Monday was postponed, according to Politico.
MORE: Columbia expels, suspends anti-Israel students who seized building last spring
IMAGE: The main gate to Brown University. Anthony Ricci/Shutterstock, Nephrology Education Collective
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