Laura Barron-Lopez:
There are three key examples in the last few days, Geoff, of those who are living and working in the U.S. legally who have either been detained, deported, or pressured to deport.
So, first up, Fabian Schmidt. He’s a green card holder from Germany who had two misdemeanor criminal offenses, but recently renewed his green card with no issues, according to reports. He lives with his family in New Hampshire. He was flying back to the U.S. from Luxembourg, and he was — quote — “violently interrogated” at Boston Airport, stripped and detained.
That’s according to what his mother told local press. Now, the second person is Ranjani Srinivasan. She’s a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University, is from India. Her student visa was revoked over last year’s Columbia protests, and the administration accused her of being a — quote — “terrorist sympathizer,” but they have not provided evidence of that.
She fled to Canada last week, and DHS Secretary Noem cheered it as self-deportation. Then, third, there’s Dr. Rasha Alawieh. She’s a kidney transplant doctor at Brown University, an H-1B visa holder from Lebanon, and she was deported last week when returning from visiting family.
Now, prosecutors allege that she had — quote — “sympathetic” photos of Hezbollah leaders.
And I spoke to Dr. George Bayliss, who works with Dr. Alawieh in the kidney transplant department. And he said that her deportation has disrupted the clinic, and he fears what this could mean for other immigrant doctors, as well as that pipeline of immigrant doctors who come to train in the U.S.