White House’s ‘Bye-Bye Rasha’ Post as Brown University Doctor Deported to Lebanon Sparks Outrage

White House’s ‘Bye-Bye Rasha’: The White House ignited controversy on Monday by resharing a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) post about the deportation of a Lebanese doctor, adding the phrase 'bye-bye Rasha' alongside a photo of President Donald Trump waving from a drive-through window.

The move came in response to the removal of Dr Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who had been working in Rhode Island.

After US authorities claimed that Alawieh had ties to Hezbollah, she was arrested when she arrived at Boston Logan International Airport last Thursday and deported. During a recent trip to Lebanon, she "openly admitted" to attending the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on February 23. According to officials, she allegedly erased pictures of Hezbollah militants and Nasrallah from her phone.

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"A visa is a privilege, not a right-glorifying and supporting terrorists who kill Americans is grounds for visa issuance to be denied. This is commonsense security," DHS said in a statement on social media.

Alawieh, 34, had lived and worked in Rhode Island before being awarded an H-1B visa to work as an assistant professor of medicine at Brown University. Her legal team says she was deported in spite of a federal judge's order to stay in the United States until a hearing could be scheduled, which has led to a court struggle over her abrupt departure.

Government attorneys later contended that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) authorities had not received the notice until after her plane had taken off, despite US District Judge Leo Sorokin's ruling that she could not be removed without giving the court 48 hours' notice.

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Alawieh's lawyer, Stephanie Marzouk, has vowed to continue the legal fight, stating, "We will not stop fighting to get Dr. Alawieh back to the US to see her patients where she should be."

Reports indicate that Alawieh told authorities she followed Nasrallah for "religious and spiritual teachings" rather than for his politics or military activities. When questioned about why she deleted the photos of him before arriving in Boston, she allegedly said, "Because I didn't want the perception. But I know I'm not doing anything wrong."

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