Federal authorities said the Brown University assistant professor and doctor deported to Lebanon despite having an H-1B visa expressed support and attended the funeral of a slain Hezbollah leader responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans. 

“Last month, Rasha Alawieh traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, to attend the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah – a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree,” Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “Alawieh openly admitted to this to CBP officers, as well as her support of Nasrallah.” 

“A visa is a privilege, not a right – glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is commonsense security,” McLaughlin said. 

Rasha Alawieh, a 34-year-old physician specializing in kidney transplants who was most recently living in Rhode Island, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday while coming back from a trip to Lebanon. 

EL SALVADOR TAKES IN HUNDREDS OF VENEZUELAN GANG MEMBERS FROM US, EVEN AS JUDGE MOVES TO BLOCK DEPORTATIONS

Alawieh was questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and allegedly told federal agents she had attended the funeral of Nasrallah, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Sady reportedly wrote in a new filing Monday. 

The filing has since been placed under seal, but Politico and The Providence Journal were able to report its contents beforehand. 

Alawieh allegedly stated she supported Nasrallah “from a religious perspective,” but not politically, according to Politico.

Federal authorities said they also conducted a search of Alawieh’s phone and found “sympathetic photos and videos” of Hezbollah leaders, as well as materials showing “various other Hezbollah militants” in a deleted folder. 

“With the discovery of these photographs and videos, CBP questioned Dr. Alawieh and determined that her true intentions in the United States could not be determined,” DOJ lawyers wrote, according to the Journal. “As such, CBP canceled her visa and deemed Dr. Alawieh inadmissible to the United States.”

Pedestrians make their way past a building housing the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Jan. 30, 2019, in Providence, Rhode Island. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott, File)

U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, on Friday ordered an in-person hearing regarding Alawieh’s case to take place on Monday. 

Sorokin ordered that Alawieh not be deported for at least 48 hours without giving the court 48 hours notice. Alawieh was reportedly placed on a flight to Paris anyway and then arrived back in Lebanon over the weekend.

FEDERAL JUDGE HALTS DEPORTATIONS AFTER TRUMP INVOKES ALIEN ENEMIES ACT

Sorokin reportedly postponed Monday’s hearing just before it was scheduled to start and rescheduled it for March 25 to give the DOJ more time to respond to allegations federal agents ignored a court order in sending Alawieh out of the U.S. 

CBP official John Wallace said in an affidavit that federal agents were not notified of the court order through the proper channels before Alawieh was placed on an Air France flight Friday, Politico reported.

Alawieh first came to the United States in 2018 to pursue a nephrology fellowship at Ohio State University. She went on to complete a fellowship at the University of Washington and an internal medicine program at Yale. 

Mourners attend the funeral of slain Hezbollah leaders Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine on the outskirts of Beirut on Feb. 23, 2025. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Her cousin, Yara Chehab, attempted to intervene in court last week while Alawieh had been detained at the airport for over 36 hours. Her federal lawsuit says Brown Medicine sponsored Alawieh for an H-1B visa to do the work of an assistant professor. 

Alawieh was issued an H-1B visa on March 11 to pursue an assistant professor of medicine and clinician educator role at Brown University. The lawsuit says she worked for Brown prior to the issuance of her current H-1B visa. 

Fox News Digital reached out to Brown University, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, the Justice Department and Chehab’s attorney but did not immediately hear back. 

Donald Trump’s presidency has all the stability of a flaming garbage truck careening down a mountain. Yet, somehow, he’s still behind the wheel, grinning like a maniac, while Democrats argue over the best way to file a noise complaint.

His administration is a demolition derby in a fine china shop — tariffs, diplomatic blunders and economic upheaval. And yet, if the election were today, he’d probably win again.

How is this happening? Divine retribution? A rip in the space-time continuum? Some elaborate karmic joke? No — it’s because, amazingly, Democrats have mastered the art of being simultaneously too cautious and too out of touch.

That’s not to say they aren’t trying. When they’re not wasting time arguing over decorum or recording cringey “choose your fighter” videos, Democrats are busy scrambling to find a strategy to regain power. As far as I can tell, they have four (not mutually exclusive) theories.

Theory No. 1: Cross your fingers and wait for Trump to self-destruct

This is the laziest and most beloved strategy — waiting for Trump to spontaneously combust like a Spinal Tap drummer. The logic: Trump is objectively bad at his job. He alienates allies, tanks the economy and treats foreign diplomacy like a game of “Call of Duty.” Surely, at some point, voters will come to their senses, right?

Yeah, about that. First, Trump is a world-class blame-shifter. He could drive the country into a volcano, and his base would still be cheering from the lava’s edge and faulting whoever Trump blasted most recently. Second, people don’t vote based on governance — they vote based on vibes. Trump’s vibe is chaos, but it’s charismatic chaos. His base doesn’t care if he burns down the country as long as he looks cool doing it. Meanwhile, the Democratic pitch of “we’re not as deranged as he is” is less an inspiring message and more a desperate plea from a hostage negotiator.

Voters want a story, a movement, a reason to care. Democrats keep handing them a pamphlet on fiscal responsibility.

Theory No. 2: Work hard

The second theory is refreshingly logical but also unbearably dull: What if Democrats tried really hard? You know: TV ads, field offices, door-knocking — a real ground game.

This strategy is self-soothing (it’s nice to think that blocking and tackling pays off), but it also has a tragic flaw: It works better in the midterms, when turnout is low. If ground games won presidential elections, Kamala Harris would have mopped the floor with Trump. She did not, because modern swing voters aren’t swayed by slickly produced ads and heartfelt town halls. This is the TikTok era, baby.

Trump’s rallies are like tent revivals, blending conspiracy theories with stand-up comedy. Meanwhile, Democrats are still campaigning like it’s 1992, pointing to bar graphs, issuing carefully calibrated statements and convening listening sessions about prescription drug costs.

Politics has become full-blown entertainment. The Democrats are still hosting a book club.

Theory No. 3: Stop being culturally out of touch

Here’s the brutal truth Democrats don’t want to hear: They really have to stop being culturally insufferable.

This doesn’t mean abandoning liberal values or acting like a bunch of jerks. It means dropping the graduate seminar tone. The average voter does not want to “decolonize Thanksgiving.” They do not care about pronouns. They do not believe that every microaggression is an act of “violence.” But every time some 21-year-old activist blocks a highway or waves a Hamas flag at a protest, Democrats scramble to defend them. Why? Because they’re terrified of alienating their own base.

This is why they keep getting clobbered in Middle America. If they want to win, they need to talk like normal human beings again. Right now, your average Democrat sounds like an NPR panel discussion moderated by a yoga instructor with a Whole Foods tote bag.

Theory No. 4: Pray you can find a rock star

And now for the nuclear option: Democrats need a main character. Not a competent administrator. A star.

Politics is now show business, and Trump understands this. He’s not a candidate — he’s a spectacle. His policies are often incoherent, but his performance is gripping. Attention is currency. Trump gets it. Democrats don’t.

So what do Democrats do? They either need a celebrity (someone like The Rock, Mark Cuban or Stephen A. Smith) or a political figure who doesn’t feel like a normal politician. John Fetterman, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Bernie Sanders — these people have heat. But if the party nominates another hyper-competent bureaucrat who campaigns like they’re applying for tenure at Oberlin, the ticket is finished.

* * *

So what will it take?

Probably a combination of all four theories. Trump needs to stumble; Democrats need to actually do the work, stop alienating everyone outside a liberal arts campus and find a candidate who excites people.

Otherwise, 2028 will roll around, and we’ll all be watching Donald Trump Jr., Candace Owens or Tucker Carlson get sworn in. And Democrats will be standing there slack-jawed, whispering, “I can’t believe we’re losing to these guys again.”

And the rest of us? We’ll be nursing one last cocktail of regret, knowing the warning signs were flashing bright red all along.

Matt K. Lewis is the author of “Filthy Rich Politicians” and “Too Dumb to Fail.”