An incoming freshman at Harvard was deported after officials searched his social media, not because of anything he posted, but because of his friends.
“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.”
He continued, “I responded that I have no business with such posts and that I didn’t like, [s]hare or comment on them and told her that I shouldn’t be held responsible for what others post. I have no single post on my timeline discussing politics.”Ajjawi is now back home in Lebanon, working with lawyers to try to resolve his case so he can join his cohort at Harvard, where classes will begin Tuesday. A Harvard spokesperson said the school is also trying to assist however it can.
“The University is working closely with the student’s family and appropriate authorities to resolve this matter so that he can join his classmates in the coming days,” a Harvard spokespersonIn their own statement, U. S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson Michael S. McCarthy wrote that Ajjawi was found to be “inadmissible” to the United States.
“Applicants must demonstrate they are admissible into the U.S. by overcoming ALL grounds of inadmissibility including health-related grounds, criminality, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds,” he wrote. “This individual was deemed inadmissible to the United States based on information discovered during the CBP inspection.
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