# Rasha Alawieh

Rasha Alawieh, M.D. (born 1988 or 1989) is a Lebanese transplant nephrologist. She had worked as an assistant professor at Brown University. Alawieh gained media attention after she was denied re-entry to the United States in March 2025 and deported to Lebanon despite having a H-1B visa and a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion.

## Education and career

Alawieh obtained her medical degree from the American University of Beirut in 2015 and completed her residency at the American University of Beirut Medical Center in 2018. That year, she obtained a J-1 visa to enter the United States and completed fellowships at Ohio State University and the University of Washington. She completed the Yale Waterbury Internal Medicine Program in June 2024, the same month the United States' government approved Alawieh's petition for an H-1B visa, sponsored by Brown Medicine. This visa was issued at the Lebanese consulate on March 11 and was valid through mid-2027.

## Personal life

Alawieh is a Shi'a Muslim.

## 2025 denial of entry

Alawieh visited Lebanon in February 2025 to see relatives. While in Lebanon, she attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, the former leader of Hezbollah. According to a transcript of her airport re-entry interview, this was because of Nasrallah's religious position in the Shia community, and not due to support of his politics.
On March 14, 2025, Alawieh returned to the U.S. on a flight landing at Logan International Airport in Boston. She was detained at the airport. That same day, her cousin, Yara Chehab, filed a petition alleging that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was unlawfully detaining Dr. Alawieh "without any justification and without permitting them access to their counsel" for at least 36 hours after traveling to Lebanon to see relatives. That evening, U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin issued orders barring Alawieh's removal from Massachusetts without 48 hours notice to the court and scheduling for her to be brought to a hearing on March 17. In violation of this order, it was confirmed by Alawieh's attorney that she was sent on a flight to Paris and was back in Lebanon on March 16. A lawyer with the firm working for Chehab confirmed that she went to the airport on March 15 and showed a CBP officer a copy of the order before Alawieh's flight departed, and this was corroborated by a CBP declaration on March 17. Sorokin filed a second order that morning stating there was reason to believe CBP had willfully disobeyed his previous order and directed the government to provide a response ahead of the scheduled hearing.
On March 17, Department of Defense authorities responded alleging that Alawieh had been denied re-entry after they found "sympathetic photos and videos" of Nasrallah, Ali Khamenei, and Hezbollah militants "in her cell phone's deleted items folder".

### Responses

Brown University advised all of its international community members to postpone travel, saying it was waiting for additional information from the US Department of State.
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a press release on March 16 calling on the Trump administration to immediately readmit Alawieh, stating “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".