New Delhi, March 16 -- Rasha Alawieh, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Brown University, was detained at Boston Logan International Airport on Thursday after visiting family in Lebanon. A family member learned of her planned deportation on Friday and alerted her attorneys.

She hold a valid H-1B visa, which was recently issued by the U.S. consulate in Beirut.

The petition claims Alawieh is being held "without any justification" or permission to access legal counsel. It states her visa was approved by the State Department and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and hence, the reason for her detention by Customs and Border Protection remains unclear.

Her lawyer Thomas S. Brown also said, as reported by The Providence Journal,...