Incoming Harvard Freshman Deported From US After Officials Canceled His Visa Over His Friend’s Social Media Posts

Ismail B. Ajjawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian and resident of Tyre, Lebanon,  has been denied entry into the United States by immigration officers.

The teenager had flown in to join Harvard University. U.S. officials deported him Friday night just shortly after he arrived at Boston Logan International Airport.

According to a written statement by Ajjawi, immigration officers subjected him to hours of questioning including at one point leaving to search his phone and computer before finally canceling his visa.

Ajjawi claims he spent eight hours in Boston before he was required to leave. In Boston he was questioned by immigration officials about his religion and religious practices in Lebanon for hours. The officials then asked him to unlock his phone and laptop, and left to search them for roughly five hours, Ajjawi alleges. After the search, they questioned him about his friends’ social media activity.

“When I asked every time to have my phone back so I could tell them about the situation, the officer refused and told me to sit back in [my] position and not move at all,” he wrote. “After the 5 hours ended, she called me into a room , and she started screaming at me. She said that she found people posting political points of view that oppose the US on my friend[s] list.”

Ajjawi maintained he had not made any political posts and he shouldn’t be held responsible for others’ posts. The immigration officers however canceled Ajjawi’s visa and informed him he would be deported allowing him a phone call to his parents.

Ajjawi, who has since returned home to Lebanon, says he is in touch with a lawyer and hopes to resolve his visa issues so he can arrive this week before classes start next Tuesday. Immigration lawyers employed by Harvard together with AMIDEAST, the nonprofit that awarded Ajjawi the scholarship to study in the US, are working to resolved Ajjawi’s case.

source – The Harvard Crimson — the university’s newspaper.