A doctor and professor who travelled to Lebanon to visit her parents was prevented from re-entering the US [Getty]
A doctor and professor who travelled to Lebanon to visit her parents was prevented from re-entering the US once she landed at Boston’s Logan International Airport this week, her lawyer said in a statement.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old working at Brown Medicine’s Division of Kidney Disease and Hypertension since July last year, had been working in the US for around six years, her colleague said after she was barred entry.
Alawieh had an H-1B visa from the US consulate in Lebanon, given to people in speciality occupations which require expertise. Her attorney confirmed that the visa was valid until mid-2027.
Alawieh was detained at the airport, various reports said, with her relatives afraid that she would be deported back to Lebanon.
“We are at a loss as to why this happened…I don’t know if it’s a byproduct of the Trump crackdown on immigration. I don’t know if it’s a travel ban or some other issue,” Thomas S. Brown, the attorney representing Alawieh and Brown Medicine said.
Brown added that Alawieh’s phone was also seized, leaving him unable to contact her.
He further explained that her visa had a “wrinkle” but confirmed that it had been “relatively easy” to fix and that “whatever is going on is not the consequence of the actions at the American consulate.”
He also said he would not know the reasons US customs and border protection gave for her detention until he spoke to Alawieh. Since she was held at the airport, which is not considered US soil, she was not allowed legal counsel.
One report, citing a mutual friend in Connecticut, said customs agents only gave Alawieh one phone call before taking her phone. She made the call to her brother, based in Switzerland, who spoke to a customs official.
In an interview, Dr. George Bayliss, the medical director of Brown’s organ transplant division, slammed the detention, calling it “outrageous”.
“This is a person who is legally entitled to be in the U.S., who is stopped from re-entering the country for reasons no one knows. It’s depriving her patients of a good physician,” he said.
Both Bayliss and Alawieh graduated from Lebanon’s prestigious American University of Beirut (AUB) medical school and went to the US for a nephrology fellowship at Ohio State University.
Following this, Alawieh secured a position for a transplant fellowship at the University of Washington and had a residency at the Yale hospital system, before starting at Brown Medicine last July.
According to Bayliss, she planned to be in Lebanon for two weeks and texted a co-worker on Thursday saying she had arrived in Boston. However, shortly after, her parents were contacted by immigration officials.
Other medical professionals working alongside Alawieh condemned the decision to bar her from entering the US.
The surgical director of the organ transplant division at Brown University Health, Dr Paul Morrissey, said that Alawieh’s role was key, as she was responsible for getting people in Rhode Island on the list for kidney transplants, which he said was critical currently.
“It’s putting a strain on our office. Her work has been exceptional”, he added.
The latest developments come as the  Trump administration is considering issuing sweeping travel restrictions for the citizens of dozens of countries as part of a new ban, according to sources familiar with the matter and an internal memo seen by Reuters.
The memo lists a total of 41 countries divided into three separate groups. The first group of 10 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Cuba and North Korea among others, would be set for a full visa suspension.
In the second group, five countries – Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, and South Sudan – would face partial suspensions that would impact tourist and student visas as well as other immigrant visas, with some exceptions.
