Harvard Freshman From Palestine Deported Because His Friends Made Political Posts on Social Media

Ismail B. Ajjawi is a 17-year-old Palestinian from Tyre, Lebanon, and was supposed to be an incoming member of Harvard’s freshman class. That changed, at least for the time being, when he met an overzealous immigration officer at Boston’s Logan International Airport, as the Harvard Crimson reports:

Ajjawi wrote that he spent eight hours in Boston before he was required to leave. Upon arrival, Ajjawi faced questioning from immigration officials along with several other international students. While the other students were allowed to leave, Ajjawi alleges an immigration officer continued to question him about his religion and religious practices in Lebanon.

The same officer then asked him to unlock his phone and laptop, and left to search them for roughly five hours, Ajjawi alleges. After the search, the officer 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.”