Who is Rasha Alawieh, Brown University professor held at Boston airport despite holding H-1B visa? Where is she now?

The U.S. consulate in Beirut issued a valid H-1B visa to Rasha Alawieh.

Rasha Alawieh: Rasha Alawieh, a Rhode Island doctor and Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Brown University, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, March 13, after she visited her family in Lebanon. Her lawyers were alerted by one of her family members after being learned that she would be deported on Friday, March 14.

Notably, the U.S. consulate in Beirut recently issued a valid H-1B visa to Rasha Alawieh.

Alawieh had been studying and working in the USA for the last six years and had been working for Brown Medicine in the Division of Kidney Disease & Hypertension in Rhode Island since last July.

The petition claims Alawieh is being held “without any justification” or permission to access legal counsel; her visa was approved by the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and hence, the reason for her detention by Customs and Border Protection remains unclear.”

The filing attests that the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service approved her visa, and the reason why she was held remains unclear.

Thomas S. Brown, her lawyer, stated that “there had been some “wrinkle” with her visa application that had been “relatively easy” to work out “because they did issue the visa, so whatever is going on is not the consequence of the actions at the American consulate, as far as I know. She was clear to return. She had the visa, she had the right passport. Everything was looking good,” reports The Providence Journal.

Brian Clark, the Brown Medicine spokesperson said the University is trying to seek more information about the situation. “We need to be careful about sharing information publicly about an individual’s personal circumstances,” he wrote in an email.

Who is Rasha Alawieh?

Rasha Alawieh hails from Lebanon and has been working for Brown Medicine’s Division of Kidney Disease and Hypertension since July last year. She graduated medical school in 2015 and held fellowships and residencies at three U.S. universities on a J-1 student visa. When offered the assistant professorship at Brown, she petitioned and was approved for an H-1B visa, sponsored by Brown Medicine. This month, she was visiting Lebanon for the first time in six years to visit family.

Her whereabouts are not yet known.