Detention Nation: The Borderless Net

Part VI: They had visas. They had rights. None of it mattered.

Part VI of our ongoing series on the machinery of mass detention in America, this time with a focus on legal immigrants.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh was an assistant professor at Brown University. A nephrologist. A visa holder. In March 2025, she traveled to Lebanon to complete the renewal of her H-1B work visa—a standard requirement for foreign scholars starting …