Judge demands explanation after R.I. doctor deported despite court order – The Boston Globe

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, 34, a kidney transplant doctor and assistant professor at Brown Medicine and Rhode Island Hospital, traveled to Lebanon to see her parents but was prevented from re-entering the United States at Logan airport on Thursday evening.

On Friday, Judge Leo T. Sorokin of the US District Court in Massachusetts ordered the government not to move Alawieh outside the District of Massachusetts without 48 hours’ notice so that he could consider a habeas corpus petition, which said Alawieh had a valid visa authorizing her entry into the country.

But Alawieh was placed on a flight to Paris on Friday night, and she was later flown back to Lebanon, arriving on Sunday morning, according to her colleagues and lawyers.

Her lawyers filed a notice of apparent violation, claiming the government “had actual notice of this court’s order and willfully disobeyed this court’s order.”

On Sunday, Sorokin ordered the government to answer that claim.

“These allegations are supported by a detailed and specific timeline in an under oath affidavit filed by an attorney,” the judge wrote. “The government shall respond to these serious allegations with a legal and factual response setting forth its version of events.”

Sorokin gave the government until 8:30 a.m. Monday to respond, and he set a hearing for 10 a.m. Monday at the John J. Moakley Courthouse in Boston.

“In addition,” the judge wrote in his order, “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.”

A US Customs and Border Patrol spokesperson, Ryan Brissette, did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Alawieh’s colleagues at Brown Medicine and Rhode Island Hospital said they were outraged that she had been deported after studying and working in the United States for six years under J-1 and H-B1 visas.

Dr. George P. Bayliss, medical director of Brown Medicine’s organ transplant program, said he hopes the judge will declare immigration authorities in contempt of court and order Alawieh to be returned to the United States.

“I am outraged and upset,” he said. “The government is acting without regard for the courts.”

Plenty of other doctors in Rhode Island have H-1B visas, Bayliss said. “Everyone is at risk,” he said.

The US country has a shortage of kidney doctors, but graduates of foreign medical schools have been coming in on visas to train as nephrologists, Bayliss said. “This has implications far beyond Dr. Alawieh and our division,” he added. “This could worsen the shortage of doctors taking care of people with kidney disease and potentially transplantation.”

Dr. Basma Merhi, medical director of the living donor program and associate medical director of Brown Medicine’s transplant program, described Alawieh as her friend and colleague. “She is an accomplished doctor,” she said. “I don’t know why this should happen to a physician that is very needed and a valuable person to our program.”

The situation is creating widespread anxiety, Merhi said. “If this happened to a doctor serving her patients and helping people and saving lives, it can happen to anybody,” she said.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights group, on Sunday called for the Trump administration to immediately readmit Alawieh to the country.

“Deporting lawful immigrants like Dr. Alawieh without any basis undermines the rule of law and reinforces 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,” the council said in a statement.

US Representative Gabe Amo, a Rhode Island Democrat, said in a statement that his office has been in contact with local and national lawyers and other members of Congress “to assess the facts surrounding Dr. Alawieh, including the apparent violation of a federal judge’s order.”

Steven Brown, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island, said the ACLU is willing to help with legal assistance.

“The idea that somebody who has been lawfully working and living in this country for years can be suddenly whisked away by our government to another country without any semblance of due process would give any person who cares about our democracy pause,” Brown said. “And the fact that it was done in apparent defiance of a court order makes it even more appalling.”

A protest in support of Alawieh has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday on the Rhode Island State House lawn.

Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.