Trump administration officials are due in federal court in Boston Monday to answer what the judge calls “serious” allegations that they disobeyed his order by sending a doctor who was legally working in the U.S. back to Lebanon. The case, which coincides with news of a German-born green card holder being detained, is raising concerns of an immigration crackdown in Boston.
Dr. Rasha Alawieh is a kidney transplant specialist at the Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension at Brown Medicine, an affiliate of Brown University. Alawieh was in the U.S. on an H-1B visa, meant for highly specialized workers. She went to visit family in Lebanon in February, and when she returned to Boston’s Logan International Airport, she was detained for 36 hours and had her phone taken from her, according to court documents filed by her cousin, who obtained the court order temporarily barring officials from sending Alawieh back.
Colleagues say Alawieh’s lawyers made a frantic call to the airport control tower trying to stop her plane from taking off.
“We got the phone number for the control tower […] on the internet,” says George Bayliss, medical director of the transplant program. A lawyer called air traffic controllers imploring them to stop the plane, Bayliss says, but they were told they couldn’t. Alawieh’s lawyers accuse U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials of “willfully” disobeying the court order by sending her back to Lebanon.
“It was pretty dramatic and frustrating,” says Bayliss.
In court on Monday, government officials will share their account of what happened, but in a written statement Sunday a CBP spokesperson offered a preview of their justification.
“CBP is committed to protecting the United States from national security threats,” said Hilton Beckham, CBP’s assistant commissioner of public affairs. “Our CBP Officers adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats, using rigorous screening, vetting, strong law enforcement partnerships, and keen inspectional skills to keep threats out of the country.”
In the separate case of the German national, family members say 34-year-old electrical engineer Fabian Schmidt was detained for days when he tried to return to Logan Airport from a trip to Europe. They allege he was “violently interrogated.”
“He had to go and be stripped naked and was showered by two officers with ice cold water, and was interrogated again,” his mother, Astrid Senior, told GBH reporter Sarah Betancourt. “He hardly got anything to drink. And then he wasn’t feeling very well and he collapsed.”
Schmidt was transported to a Boston hospital and later found out that he had influenza, according to his family.
“These claims are blatantly false with respect to CBP,” Beckham said in a statement, without specifying which claims.
Beckham went on to suggest the reason for his detention.
“When an individual is found with drug-related charges and tries to reenter the country, officers will take proper action,” she said.
Schmidt’s family says he faced misdemeanor drug and DUI charges about a decade ago, and more recently, he didn’t show up for a court hearing. Relatives say he never received the notice.
The cases are the latest instances of hardline enforcement by immigration officials in the Trump administration. Trump’s “border czar”, Tom Homan, has specifically called out Boston officials for vowing not to help federal immigration enforcement efforts.
“I’m coming to Boston, I’m bringing hell with me,” he said to rousing applause at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference last month.
At the same time, opponents of the Trump administration’s crackdown are mobilizing in protest. A rally is planned for Monday evening at the Rhode Island State House to support Alawieh, the doctor who was sent back to Lebanon.
That follows protests in multiple cities in support of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestinian protest leader who was arrested by federal immigration officers and faces possible deportation. They say his campus protest activities at Columbia amount to a national security threat, because they “align with Hamas,” a U.S.-designated terrorist group. Khalil has a green card and is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S.
