Homeland Security says professor deported to Lebanon with US visa supported Hezbollah leader

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Homeland Security officials on Monday said that a doctor from Lebanon who was deported over the weekend despite having a U.S. visa “openly admitted” to supporting a Hezbollah leader and attending his funeral. The 34-year-old Lebanese citizen, who held an H-1B visa, was detained on Thursday at Logan International Airport in Boston after returning from a trip to Lebanon to see family. FRANCE 24's Jessica Le Masurier reports from New York. #Trump #deportations #immigration  🔔 Subscribe to France 24 now: https://f24.my/YTen 🔴 LIVE - Watch FRANCE 24 English 24/7 here: https://f24.my/YTliveEN  🌍 Read the latest International News and Top Stories: https://www.france24.com/en/  Like us on Facebook: https://f24.my/FBen Follow us on X (Twitter): https://f24.my/Xen Browse the news in pictures on Instagram: https://f24.my/IGen Discover our TikTok videos: https://f24.my/TKen Get the latest top stories on Telegram: https://f24.my/TGen

Transcript

00:00The deportation of a Lebanese doctor has really sparked alarm here in the United States.

00:04Dr. Rasha Alawiya, a kidney transplant doctor at Rhode Island Hospital and an assistant

00:09professor at Brown University, was deported on Friday night.

00:14Now, she had gone from Lebanon to Boston Airport, and she was detained at Boston Airport as

00:22she was returning from a family trip to Lebanon.

00:24Now, initially, it was unclear why she was being detained, but then it transpired that

00:30she was deported on Friday night after border agents found photos on her phone, which they

00:37said indicated that she was sympathetic to an extremist group.

00:41They found photos of Hezbollah's late leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

00:46And in an interview with the agents, Dr. Alawiya said that she had, whilst in Lebanon, attended

00:51the funeral of Nasrallah.

00:53Now, in that same interview, she also explained that she had attended not for political, but

00:57rather for religious reasons, because he had been a big figure in her Shiite community

01:03in Lebanon.

01:04Now, her deportation has really had a chilling effect, because it comes right after the detention

01:12of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil.

01:15He was the lead negotiator in protests over the Gaza war at Columbia University last year,

01:21and he has been detained.

01:23And the Trump administration says that it's going to deport him for his views on Hamas.

01:30It argues that he's a Hamas sympathizer.

01:33His defenders say, no, he is simply someone speaking out for the rights of the Palestinian

01:38people.

01:39Well, all of this has really had a chilling effect.

01:42And civil rights defenders say that it's an assault on the First Amendment, on freedom

01:47of speech, the type of assault that would only happen in a really repressive regime

01:52where people are targeted for going out to protest over their political beliefs.

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