March 17 (UPI) -- A federal judge canceled a court hearing Monday over the deportation of Brown University professor Dr. Rasha Alawieh, despite an order requiring 48 hours notice before he could be removed from the country.
Judge Leo Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued an order on Monday, just ahead of the hearing's scheduled 10 a.m. EST start time saying he received testimony that the officers who detained Alawieh hadn't been notified of the order ahead of time.
"Officers at Logan did not receive notice of the court's order from their legal counsel until after Dr. Alawieh 'had already departed the United States' and that '[a]t no time would CBP not take a court order seriously or fail to abide by a court's order," the testimony said.
Sorokin then postponed the hearing and gave the government another week to submit further information about Alawieh's deportation.
Justice Department lawyers also submitted fillings before the Monday court session that alleged "sympathetic photos and videos" of prominent Hezbollah figures were found in the deleted items folder of Alawieh's cell phone.
Alawieh was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Boston's Logan International Airport on Thursday morning and then sent to France with a flight scheduled to take her to Lebanon.
Alawieh's cousin Yara Chehab filed a suit Friday naming U.S. Department Of Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kristi Noem, Customs and Border Commissioner Peter Flores and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as defendants, alleging that "CBP refuses to provide any justification for their detention, refuses to allow the attorneys to talk to Dr. Alawieh, and refuses to provide assurances that Dr. Alawieh will not be deported."
According to the complaint, Alawieh a Lebanese citizen, had been issued an H-1B visa days earlier to work as an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.
The same day the complaint was filed, Sorokin issued an order barring Alawieh's deportation without providing the court 48 hours' notice.
Sorokin said Sunday in a filing obtained by Axios that despite the order, Alawieh appears to have been removed.
In the filing, Sorokin, a President Barack Obama appointee, ordered the Trump administration to respond to the claims that it willfully disobeyed the court order by 8:30 a.m. EST Monday, ahead of the previously scheduled 10 a.m. hearing on the matter.
"The government shall respond to these serious allegations with a legal and factual response setting forth its version of events," Sorokin said in the filing.
"The government shall preserve all of the documents bearing on Dr. Alawieh's arrival and removal since the issuance of the visa described in the Petition, including emails and text messages."
According to the complaint, Alawieh moved to the United States in 2018 to complete a two-year fellowship at Ohio State University. She then completed a fellowship at the University of Washington before moving to the Yale Waterbury Internal Medicine Program, which she completed in June.
She was in the United States on a J-1 visa.
She was then offered the assistant professorship by Brown University, which sponsored her visa. She had traveled to Lebanon in February for a brief visit but was unable to obtain a visa until March 11.
The complaint stated Alawieh was unlawfully detained and was denied access to counsel.
"Despite repeated requests from Dr. Alawieh's family members and a volunteer attorney, CBP refuses to provide any justification for their detention, refuses to allow the attorneys to talk to Dr. Alawieh and refuses to provide assurances that Dr. Alawieh will not be deported to Lebanon," it states.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, responded to the deportation by calling on the Trump administration to immediately readmit her.
"As a U.S. resident for six years and a doctor working for the Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension at Brown Medicine, Dr. Alawieh played a critical role in treating countless patients who needed treatment by a specialist," CAIR said in a statement.
"Deporting lawful immigrants like Dr. Alawieh without any basis undermines the rule of law and reinforces the suspicion that our immigration system is turning into an anti-Muslim, White supremacist institution that seeks to expel and turn away as many Muslims and people of color as possible."
Hilton Beckham, assistant commissioner of public affairs for CBP, issued a statement on the decision Sunday.
"Arriving aliens bear the burden of establishing admissibility to the United States," Beckham said. "Our CBP officers adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats, using rigorous screening, vetting, strong law enforcement partnerships, and keen inspectional skills to keep threats out of the country. CBP is committed to protecting the United States from national security threats."
