Dr. Rasha Alawieh, an Ivy League Lebanese doctor and legal visa holder, was deported by the Trump administration despite a court order. The New Republic accused the Trump administration in an article of openly defying a court order and deporting the Brown University professor and kidney transplant specialist.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh traveled to her native Lebanon to visit relatives last month and was detained on Thursday upon her return to the U.S. A District Court judge in Massachusetts, Leo Sorokin, ordered the government in a Friday evening ruling to give a 48-hour advance notice before deporting Alawieh, but she was put on a flight out of the country the same night anyway.

Customs and Border Protection officials intentionally defied the ruling, claiming they received the court order two minutes too late.

What if Dr. Rasha Alawieh was an escaped fugitive?

You can bet the Customs and Border Protection officials would have ordered the flight to abort takeoff. Usually, within two minutes of takeoff, an airplane is still in U.S. airspace and could have easily returned to Logan International Airport in Boston upon government request.

According to Brown University, Dr. Rasha Alawieh earned her medical degree from the American University of Beirut. She had a valid H-1B visa, which is granted to skilled foreign citizens in “specialty occupations.”

The good doctor had been working and studying in the U.S. for the last six years before her rushed deportation. She was kicked out of the country without any justification and was denied access to legal counsel, according to her cousin. America has lost a valuable human asset!

Alawieh’s lawyers filed a motion Saturday stating, “that Customs and Border Patrol received actual notice of the court order and nonetheless thereafter ‘willfully’ disobeyed the order by sending her out of the United States.”

The judge then issued a second court order on Sunday, saying there was reason to believe Customs and Border Protection defied his initial ruling on purpose. He stated he followed “common practice in this district as it has been for years” and ordered CBP to respond to “serious allegations” at a court hearing scheduled for Monday.

Forty-eight hours after her deportation, the U.S. government stated that the real reason for deporting her was that she attended the funeral of Lebanese leader Hassan Nasrallah, which took place five months after he was killed in an Israeli airstrike.

During his funeral in Beirut, Dr. Rasha happened to be in Lebanon visiting her parents when hundreds of thousands of people attended the funeral of Hezbollah's leader, according to a report by Voice of America. So, is attending the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah a crime? Did she support Hezbollah financially? Of course not! Otherwise, Trump would be screaming Bloody Mary!

Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a doctor and assistant professor with a visa to work in Rhode Island, has never been charged with or convicted of a criminal offense! Her deportation was cruel, inhumane, racist, and in violation of a court order. This is just the start of an impending dictatorship.

Trump is simply an evil and deranged lunatic. According to India Today, Trump reshared a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) post about the deportation of a Lebanese doctor on Monday, adding the phrase "Bye-bye Rasha" alongside a photo of himself 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. The post looked sickening, silly, and unpresidential.

Maya Lehrer, an organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation, spoke during a protest against the deportation of Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Rasha Alawieh of Brown University at the State House in Providence.

Dr. Rasha is a legal immigrant, not a criminal, and likely contributes more than any MAGA supporter could ever hope to. I should add that Donald Trump does not understand what the First Amendment’s right to freedom of speech is all about. On one hand, he called Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist organizations, but then he sent his envoy to wine and dine with a Hamas representative in Cairo to negotiate on behalf of Israel. That was betrayal and treason.

Who can forget when, in 2019, President Trump secretly invited Taliban leaders to Camp David over the Fourth of July weekend? That is the same group that killed U.S. soldiers.

How is that different from Rasha attending the funeral of Nasrallah? Trump’s behavior reminds me of the idiom, "Do as I say, not as I do." He realizes that his actions may not serve as a good example and wants others to follow his words, not his behavior.

After all, Donald J. Trump was the one who defended the Proud Boys and called the white nationalist torchbearers at the University of Virginia “some very fine people.”

While searching for information about Dr. Rasha Alawieh for this article, I came across a comment on the Yahoo News message board by a user with the moniker "NamVet" that read, "Wot ina hail kina name is that?" I responded with, "The name 'Rasha' is of Arabic origin and has multiple meanings. It can be derived from the Arabic word 'rashā,' which means 'young gazelle' or 'young deer.' In Arabic culture, the gazelle is often associated with grace, beauty, and agility." Obviously, NamVet and MAGA clowns are not used to names unless they are Susan, John, or Chris.

Dr. Rasha is entitled to due process under the law, which she was denied and ignored by Trump. In America, we believe in the presumption of innocence—you are innocent until proven guilty. Period! Whenever the Orange Man accuses someone of wrongdoing, he has done it himself multiple times. Trump has no respect for the rule of law, nor does he have any respect for the Constitution.

If the executive branch does not follow court orders and Congress takes no action, we have functionally become a dictatorship where the president acts as judge, jury, and executioner.

Mahmoud El-Yousseph is a Palestinian freelancer for Islamicity.com and ColumbusFreepress.com. He can be reached at elyousseph6@yahoo.com.