Veronica Cardenas wrote in the Guardian: “[As] I saw firsthand in my 13 years as an assistant chief counsel for ICE the US immigration system was not designed to grant due process or ensure fairness; instead, it was built to prioritize deportation as a fallback when criminal prosecutions weren’t politically desirable or feasible.”

On March 13 Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who works at Brown Medicine and Rhode Island Hospital and held a H-1B visa, was barred at Boston Logan Airport from re-entering the United States. Alawieh is a citizen of Lebanon, to where she had flown from Boston a few weeks before to visit family.

The Boston Globe has covered the case and the following come largely from it.

According to the Globe, Judge Leo T. Sorokin issued an order on March 14 saying Alawieh should not be moved outside of Massachusetts without 48 hours notice. But he said that message apparently did not reach immigration officials in time, and a plane carrying Alawieh left for Paris.

Clare Saunders, one of Alaweih’s attorneys, said she went to Logan and tried repeatedly to attract the attention of federal officers. From her account, the officers pointedly refused to acknowledge her presence – much in line with Veronica Cardenas’ observation.

Today, March 17, US Customs and Border Protection told the judge that it has found on her phone photos of Hezbollah fighters and Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of Hezbollah who was killed on Sept 27,2024 by an Isreali air strike and whose funeral she attended. Per the Globe, according to ICE,  “I have a lot of WhatsApp groups with families and friends who send them,” she replied. “I am a Shia Muslim, and he is a religious figure. He has a lot of teachings, and he is highly regarded in the Shia community. He the head of Hezbollah.” The officer asked if she knew that Hezbollah had been designated as a terrorist organization. “Yes,” she said. “I’m not much into politics. But yes.”

Boston law firm Arnold and Porter, who had initially signed on to represent Alawieh, told Judge Sorokin that they wish to remove themselves from the case.