Brown Medicine professor and doctor deported to Lebanon despite valid visa(nbcnews.com)
nbcnews.com
Brown Medicine professor and doctor deported to Lebanon despite valid visa
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/brown-medicine-professor-doctor-deported-lebanon-valid-visa-court-fili-rcna196638
54 comments
There are protests actually from looking at twitter. It's just that it doesn't make the news.
It's hard to tell, it doesn't look as massive as say the women's march.
It's hard to tell, it doesn't look as massive as say the women's march.
Given the ideological bent of people in favor of these actions, they will bend over backwards to invent a justification that makes this acceptable. CBP and ICE are both feeling fully empowered enough that they can just ignore court orders and not bother following the rule of law which should be considered a critical problem (especially by the people that were supposed to be 'I need guns to protect myself from the government' types) but I think it's increasingly clear the double think on brazen display.
The fact that this submission was flagged until I vouched for it is also worrisome.
The majority of political posts, especially those that make it to the front page, are very quickly flagged. It feels much worse lately which makes sense considering the political climate in the US.
She’s an H1B holder. That is very much of importance to the tech industry (at least in the US)
> It feels much worse lately which makes sense considering the political climate in the US.
This is the part that concerns me.
This is the part that concerns me.
I think in general this site avoids political news unless it's directly related to tech. While I agree the US politics is mad right now, it doesn't "gratify one's intellectual curiosity".
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
Not related to tech? Excuse me? I'm assuming you're aware of how many immigrants work in the tech industry, right? Two jobs go, I was on a team of 10 where only 2 of us were actual, natural born Americans. Not every team at the company was like that, but, still, there was definitely a large percentage of non-Americans in the engineering and product org, at least.
What's intellectually stimulating about a professor being deported? I'm not denying it's an issue, it needs to be voiced somewhere, but is a tech forum the place?
The rules:
> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
The rules:
> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
An asteroid hitting the earth would be on the news, should we not cover that here? How about the administration gunning down explicitly non-tech workers? How about the moon turning into cheese?
The word "probably" is probably being ignored. It is a novel situation (which is also referenced in the rules) that the government is ignoring court orders, multiple court orders, and it is going to effect the vast majority of people on this forum, eventually.
The word "probably" is probably being ignored. It is a novel situation (which is also referenced in the rules) that the government is ignoring court orders, multiple court orders, and it is going to effect the vast majority of people on this forum, eventually.
That isn't what is happening at all, our MAGA supporting members are brigading any story that puts the limited operation in a bad light.
I'd like to see your concrete evidence for that claim.
The alternate hypothesis is that regular members are flagging political articles because they're tired of the huge upswing in political articles since January 20.
How are you telling the difference between the two?
The alternate hypothesis is that regular members are flagging political articles because they're tired of the huge upswing in political articles since January 20.
How are you telling the difference between the two?
From hanging out on [new] and seeing what gets flagged and what doesn't.
Flagging is just a 100x powerful downvote button that is getting abused by folks that want to change the narrative. I don't know what the karma value is for flagging, but it should be raised and flags should come out of a leaky bucket.
> I'd like to see your concrete evidence for that claim.
Please with the language.
Flagging is just a 100x powerful downvote button that is getting abused by folks that want to change the narrative. I don't know what the karma value is for flagging, but it should be raised and flags should come out of a leaky bucket.
> I'd like to see your concrete evidence for that claim.
Please with the language.
> > I'd like to see your concrete evidence for that claim.
> Please with the language.
What do you think is wrong with that language?
And, hanging out on [new] and seeing what gets flagged is not evidence for your claim. It gives you no evidence of who is flagging or why - it only shows you what is getting flagged. That doesn't tell you that MAGA people are doing it, or that they're doing it because it puts something in a bad light. That's just your assumption.
Some of us are just tired of politics here on HN. That doesn't make us MAGA. It doesn't make us Trump supporters. It doesn't mean we support this particular deportation. It just means we don't want to discuss it on HN.
> Please with the language.
What do you think is wrong with that language?
And, hanging out on [new] and seeing what gets flagged is not evidence for your claim. It gives you no evidence of who is flagging or why - it only shows you what is getting flagged. That doesn't tell you that MAGA people are doing it, or that they're doing it because it puts something in a bad light. That's just your assumption.
Some of us are just tired of politics here on HN. That doesn't make us MAGA. It doesn't make us Trump supporters. It doesn't mean we support this particular deportation. It just means we don't want to discuss it on HN.
I also see the comments on those posts trying to downplay and deflect. Other political posts make it through just fine. Anything mentioning Elron gets insta flagged. It is the same exact behavior we so with anything even remotely critical of Israel.
I didn't say you were MAGA, nor did I say that all people flagging are MAGA. I have flagged plenty of stories that were about to or already descended into a toxic mess.
These stories are getting flagged with zero comments, and when unflagged, go on to have interesting conversations.
Flagging is not a solution for seeing stories you are not interested in. Downvoting is.
You know full well that any evidence one is going to have is circumstantial. It is a coy way of saying, "you have no concrete evidence, shutup until you do".
I didn't say you were MAGA, nor did I say that all people flagging are MAGA. I have flagged plenty of stories that were about to or already descended into a toxic mess.
These stories are getting flagged with zero comments, and when unflagged, go on to have interesting conversations.
Flagging is not a solution for seeing stories you are not interested in. Downvoting is.
You know full well that any evidence one is going to have is circumstantial. It is a coy way of saying, "you have no concrete evidence, shutup until you do".
Kind of. I was saying that "our MAGA supporting members are brigading any story that puts the limited operation in a bad light" is an accusation of bad faith by the downvoters. Such an accusation is in fact the kind of thing where you should shut up until you have evidence.
"Assume good faith" is part of the site guidelines, after all.
> Flagging is not a solution for seeing stories you are not interested in. Downvoting is.
For comments. For stories, flagging is all you can do.
Also note that I am not the downvoter of these stories. I just don't think that everyone who does can be lumped into your "MAGA supporting" category.
"Assume good faith" is part of the site guidelines, after all.
> Flagging is not a solution for seeing stories you are not interested in. Downvoting is.
For comments. For stories, flagging is all you can do.
Also note that I am not the downvoter of these stories. I just don't think that everyone who does can be lumped into your "MAGA supporting" category.
Even stories point out flaws of no-lidar approach with particular brand of cars are being flagged. Is that no tech related?
Any examples? I'd agree that is bad, yes - except if it's excessively shared and Dang is linking to the main conversation.
An H1B Worker getting deported seems preeeetty relevant to tech for me. Unless we think Tech workers themselves are somehow superior to medicine professors and this could never ever happen to them.
I think it's an especially important thing for tech, because Silicon Valley and tech companies in general employ a lot of talent that would be affected by these efforts, whether it's H-1B or naturalized citizens.
Tech workers suddenly not wanting to work in the US or entrepreneurs avoiding conferences and such in the US as a result of an increasingly hostile environment is a great way to crater tech companies as a whole.
Tech workers suddenly not wanting to work in the US or entrepreneurs avoiding conferences and such in the US as a result of an increasingly hostile environment is a great way to crater tech companies as a whole.
I agree, and an article on tech brain drain to Europe would be interesting! But the worst thing for HN is that it becomes another Reddit, full of posts about US politics and comments about political views with no substance.
The site rules explicitly say news articles are not things we should post.
I was an immigrant in the US (J-2) and agree this is an issue, just not one for HN.
The site rules explicitly say news articles are not things we should post.
I was an immigrant in the US (J-2) and agree this is an issue, just not one for HN.
I'm deeply concerned about it too, but the moderation on this website is pretty hostile towards politics. Only expect major political news (and the debate seems to be what qualifies as major) to be tolerated.
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Yeah - just wait until they start deporting actual Americans to Lebanon!
You may be joking, but ICE is already detaining naturalized US citizens: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/us-citizen-hispanic-deta...
If you are traffic stopped by a law enforcement officer for any reason you are “detained”. So in that sense US citizens are detained all the time. Nothing new here about that. They apparently detained him because someone missed a court appearance who has used his address. That might be a more aggressive application of investigation than the prior administration’s policy for handling people that miss their immigration court cases, but it’s not inappropriate for a LEO to show up at your door if you miss a court case in general regardless of your immigration status.
“Machado said he was uncuffed and immediately released after showing his driver’s license.”
Seems like they treated him appropriately as soon as they verified his identity.
“Machado said he was uncuffed and immediately released after showing his driver’s license.”
Seems like they treated him appropriately as soon as they verified his identity.
That article is more outrage porn than anything else.
That doesn't sound like a denial that it's actually happening.
If you can’t see the difference between deporting someone and stopping them to see if they are the person to be deported what can I tell you.
Yes, and he was 100% legal. Only proves recism is alive and well in the US
“she was detained by Customs and Border Protection officers and held at the airport for 36 hours, for reasons that are unclear.”
Since both articles here and NyTimes are only posting the positive things about the professor, I’ll throw in a possibility. They scanned the professors phone, didn’t like what they saw, and end of story.
Since both articles here and NyTimes are only posting the positive things about the professor, I’ll throw in a possibility. They scanned the professors phone, didn’t like what they saw, and end of story.
> They scanned the professors phone, didn’t like what they saw, and end of story.
Is there any evidence of that?
And what sort of things could they not like, that would be sufficient for this action?
Is there any evidence of that?
And what sort of things could they not like, that would be sufficient for this action?
The NYT is now reporting that she was deported because she had attended the funeral for the former Hezbollah leader:
The Department of Homeland Security said on Monday that it had deported a Brown University professor and doctor with a valid visa because they said she attended a Hezbollah leader’s funeral in February during a trip to Lebanon.
When questioned by Customs and Border Protection officers upon her return to the United States, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who is Lebanese, “openly admitted” her support for the leader, Hassan Nasrallah, according to a Homeland Security spokeswoman. Dr. Alawieh was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/rasha-alawieh-brown-un... (https://archive.is/fraB8)
The article goes on to say that the Department did not say why they thought she had attended this funeral, but seeing it on her phone does seem like an obvious possibility. This is of course independent of the question of whether this should be sufficient to deny re-entry.
The Department of Homeland Security said on Monday that it had deported a Brown University professor and doctor with a valid visa because they said she attended a Hezbollah leader’s funeral in February during a trip to Lebanon.
When questioned by Customs and Border Protection officers upon her return to the United States, Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who is Lebanese, “openly admitted” her support for the leader, Hassan Nasrallah, according to a Homeland Security spokeswoman. Dr. Alawieh was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/rasha-alawieh-brown-un... (https://archive.is/fraB8)
The article goes on to say that the Department did not say why they thought she had attended this funeral, but seeing it on her phone does seem like an obvious possibility. This is of course independent of the question of whether this should be sufficient to deny re-entry.
This article has a lot more detail: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/17/rasha-alawieh-depor...
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See earlier: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43384730
Brown University Professor Is Deported Despite a Judge's Order (nytimes.com)
82 points | 4 hours ago | 36 comments
Brown University Professor Is Deported Despite a Judge's Order (nytimes.com)
82 points | 4 hours ago | 36 comments
I had a Lebanese friend in medical school in the states and his racist rants about how he was considered white for his MCAT scores would make Goebbels blush so it's amusing how brown is used here.
The good news is he eventually got into a school in the Caribbean and today is practicing medicine in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Good luck everyone.
The good news is he eventually got into a school in the Caribbean and today is practicing medicine in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Good luck everyone.
>it's amusing how brown is used here.
Brown here is being used here to mean Brown University. In what way do you find it amusing.
Brown here is being used here to mean Brown University. In what way do you find it amusing.
Why is this flagged?
It's (arguably) against site rules. It doesn't gratify ones intellectual curiosity and is something they'd cover on the news. There's a large uptick in political content this year, and I agree US news is crazy right now, but this site requires posting discipline or it'll become no different to a subreddit.
> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
It implicitly paints the administration, and thus Elon Musk, and thus Silicon Valley bigwigs, in a bad light. Very many of the users of this site will flag anything which does so, under the guise of politics being not of interest to hackers, even as many other users of this site express interest in such conversations. (Even for me to honestly mention this phenomenon is technically against the rules, though.)
piombisallow(2)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_They_Came