To Donald Trump’s America, where outrage spread across the nation’s left-wing papers at the weekend after it emerged that a Brown University professor had been deported from the country. Dr Rasha Alawieh had, the New York Times reported, a valid visa and a court order temporarily blocking her removal – and yet that didn’t stop Trump’s team from expelling her. But so desperate were lefty broadsheets – including the Guardian – to kick up a furore about it all, they didn’t wait to hear exactly why the Department of Homeland Security had made the move.
On Monday, the DHS explained in more detail about why it had deported the doctor, a kidney transplant specialist and academic, after the details of her recent trip to Lebanon came to light. Homeland Security has claimed that they expelled the Brown University professor after she attended the funeral of an, um, Hezbollah leader in February. More than that, Dr Alawieh, who is Lebanese herself, is said to have ‘openly admitted’ her support for the late leader Hassan Nasrallah while federal prosecutors have alleged they found ‘sympathetic photos and videos’ on her phone of prominent Hezbollah figures. Good heavens…
It’s a little embarrassing for the New York Times and Guardian then, after both papers published bemused write-ups over the weekend and Monday morning about the whole palaver. ‘Brown University professor deported despite judge’s order, defying US court’, screamed the Grauniad headline, while the NYT claimed the expulsion had taken place ‘in apparent defiance’ of a court order ‘even though she had a valid visa’. Even after the claims about Alawieh’s Hezbollah sympathies emerged, the US paper took a rather interesting position on the Department for Homeland Security, reporting that:
The department did not say how it knew that Dr. Alawieh had attended the funeral, which was held in a sports stadium and attracted tens of thousands of people. It also did not respond to questions about whether Dr. Alawieh has been accused of a crime or immigration violation.
A curious stance to take under the circumstances…
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