An extraordinary legal showdown took place last weekend over President Donald Trump’s invocation of an 18th century wartime act to deport hundreds of immigrants, most of them Venezuelans, to a prison in El Salvador.
It involved a series of legal filings, White House announcements, court hearings, deportation flights and a mocking social media post from a Central American leader who proudly calls himself the “world’s coolest dictator.”
Here is a timeline of events surrounding the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act. All times are eastern.
2:16 a.m.: Two legal advocacy groups — the ACLU and Democracy Forward — file suit on behalf of five Venezuelans held in immigration detention who fear they’ll be falsely labeled members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and deported under the Alien Enemies Act, which lawyers expect to be invoked soon.
9:40 a.m.: Judge James E. Boasberg issues a temporary restraining order preventing the government from deporting the five plaintiffs. He schedules a 5 p.m. hearing on whether to expand it. The Trump administration swiftly appeals the order.
Roughly 4 p.m.: The White House posts the order invoking the Alien Enemies Act.
5 p.m.: Boasberg convenes a hearing and asks the government attorney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign, if the government plans to deport anyone under Trump’s new proclamation “in the next 24 or 48 hours.” Ensign says he doesn't know and asks for time to find out, as the ACLU warns planes are apparently about to depart. Boasberg gives Ensign about 40 minutes to find out and recesses the hearing at 5:22 pm.
5:26 p.m.: An airplane with the tail number N278GX, believed by activists to be carrying deportees, leaves Harlingen, Texas, near the border with Mexico, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
5:45 p.m.: Another airplane with the tail number N837VA, believed by activists to be carrying deportees, departs Harlingen.
About 5:55 p.m.: Boasberg reconvenes the hearing. Ensign says he still has no specifics. The ACLU again warns that planes are leaving. Boasberg says he has to issue a new order to avoid anyone being immediately deported.
Around 6:45 p.m.: Boasberg tells Ensign: “Inform your clients of this immediately, and that any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States.” He verbally issues his order, which stands for 14 days, and notes that immigrants protected by it will remain in U.S. custody.
7:26 p.m.: Boasberg's written order is released.
7:36 p.m.: The plane with the tail number N278GX lands in Honduras.
7:37 p.m.: An airplane with the tail number N630VA, believed by activists to be carrying deportees, departs Harlingen.
8:02 p.m. The plane with the tail number N837VA lands in El Salvador.
9:46 p.m.: The plane with the tail number N630VA arrives in Honduras.
10:41 p.m.: The plane with the tail number N278GX departs Honduras.
12:05 a.m.: The plane with the tail number N278GX arrives in El Salvador.
12:41 a.m.: The plane with the tail number N630VA leaves Honduras.
1:03 a.m.: The plane with the tail number N630VA arrives in El Salvador.
7:46 a.m.: El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, tweets a New York Post headline saying Boasberg had ordered planes turned around and adds “Oopsie … Too late” and a laughing/crying emoji.
8:13 a.m.: Bukele tweets footage of the deportees arriving and being processed into his country’s showcase prison.
8:39 a.m.: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio posts Bukele’s tweet.
9:29 a.m.: White House Communications director recirculates Bukele’s laughing post
5 p.m.: A hearing begins over what Boasberg has called the “possible defiance” of his court order. Trump administration lawyers tell Boasberg that his verbal directions did not count, only his written order needed to be followed, that it couldn’t apply to flights outside the U.S. and that they could not answer his questions about the trips due to national security issues. Boasberg calls the arguments "one heck of a stretch.” Lee Gelernt of the ACLU, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, warns that “I think we're getting very close” to a constitutional crisis.
Associated Press writer Tim Sullivan contributed.
FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks along the southern border with Mexico, on Aug. 22, 2024, in Sierra Vista, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
BOSTON (AP) — Homeland Security officials on Monday said that a doctor from Lebanon who was deported over the weekend despite having a U.S. visa “openly admitted” to supporting a Hezbollah leader and attending his funeral.
The department's statement, posted on social media, provides a possible explanation for Dr. Rasha Alawieh's deportation, which has sparked widespread alarm, especially after a federal judge ordered that she not be removed until a hearing could be held. Government lawyers have said customs officials did not get word until after Alawieh was sent back to Lebanon.
“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,” Homeland Security said in its statement.
It’s the latest deportation of a foreign-born person with a U.S. visa, after Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, who helped lead protests of the Gaza war at Columbia University, was arrested and a doctoral student's visa was revoked. The Trump administration also transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations.
Stephanie Marzouk, Alawieh’s lawyer, said she would not stop fighting to get the 34-year-old doctor back in the U.S., “to see her patients where she should be.”
Marzouk did not immediately return a request for comment surrounding Homeland Security’s allegations that Alawieh supported a Hezbollah leader.
The Justice Department has also detailed its reasons for deporting Alawieh in court filings, but a federal judge has sealed those documents.
News outlets that obtained those records before they were sealed reported that Alawieh had photos on her phone of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militant group for the past three decades. The Boston Globe reported she also had pictures of Hezbollah “fighters and martyrs” on her phone.
“According to Dr. Alawieh, she follows him for his religious and spiritual teachings and not his politics," the court documents stated.
When asked why she deleted the photos days before arriving in Boston, Alawieh allegedly told officers: “Because I didn’t want the perception. But I know I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m not related to anything politically or militarily.”
Alawieh was granted the visa on March 11 and arrived at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday, according to a complaint filed on her behalf by a cousin in federal court.
Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist who previously worked and lived in Rhode Island, was detained at least 36 hours, the complaint said. She was to start work at Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine.
U.S. District Judge Leo Sorokin issued an order Friday that an in-person hearing be scheduled Monday, with Alawieh brought to court.
On Saturday, the cousin filed a motion saying customs officials “willfully” disobeyed the order by sending Alawieh back to Lebanon.
Lawyers for the government said in a court filing Monday that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Boston airport did not receive notice of the order until she “had already departed the United States,” the judge noted. They asked that the petition be dismissed.
Alawieh worked at Brown prior to the issuance of her H1B visa, the complaint said. It said she has held fellowships and residencies at three universities in the U.S.
A spokesperson for Brown said Alawieh is an employee of Brown Medicine with a clinical appointment to Brown.
Brown Medicine is a not-for-profit medical practice that is its own organization and serves its own patients directly. It is affiliated with Brown University's medical school.
On Monday, a handful of Alawieh’s colleagues stood outside Boston’s federal courthouse to support her.
“She is one of three transplant nephrologists in the entire state of Rhode Island, which, you know, also serves the parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut,” said Dr. Susie Hu. “Her absence is really detrimental to our program.”
Dr. Douglas Shemin, who said he hired Alawieh at Brown Medicine, called her an “outstanding” clinician, physician and teacher who eagerly put in long hours without complaining.
Brown Medicine has roughly 300 to 400 patients awaiting kidney transplants, according to Shemin. Each needs regular evaluations, which now must be done by just two doctors.
More than 100 people gathered in the rain outside the Rhode Island Statehouse on Monday evening to rally in support of Alawieh, holding signs reading “Dr. Rasha Has Rights” and “We cannot tolerate this!”
Speaking at the rally, Brown University student Kai Blades called the deportation part of a broader pattern of political repression.
“We’re here to stand in opposition to deportations, in opposition to racism and in opposition to the fascist state terror that has been used not only against our beloved community member Rasha, but others like Mahmoud Khalil,” Blades said. “We are here to stay. We’re going to stand up for our community and we’re going to be as loud as possible when they’re under attack."
Meanwhile, lawyers for Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student, requested Monday that he be released on bail or returned to New York from a Louisiana detention facility.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers wrote that the treatment of Khalil meant “every noncitizen must wonder whether they will face retaliation for engaging in speech on issues of public concern or critical of the U.S. government.” It seemed designed to “prevent Mr. Khalil — and many others — from speaking in this country at all,” they added.
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This story has been corrected to fix the spelling of the doctor’s last name throughout. Her name is Rasha Alawieh, not Rasha Alawiech.
McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire, and Kruesi reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Associated Press journalist Larry Neumeister in New York also contributed.
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
A protester holds a "Freeze I.C.E." sign during a rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025 in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Protesters rally outside the Rhode Island State House in support of deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
People walk past the the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse in Boston, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Attorney Stephanie Marzouk, who represents deported Brown University Dr. Rasha Alawieh, speaks to reporters outside the Moakley Federal Courthouse, Monday, March 17, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
FILE - Pedestrians make their way past a building housing the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Jan. 30, 2019, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Jennifer McDermott, File)
