An incoming Harvard freshman was deported after being detained at Boston Logan International Airport for hours, reportedly after immigration officers found social media posts his friends made that were critical of the U.S.
Ismail B. Ajjawi, an incoming freshman, was supposed to arrive on campus this week. Instead, the Harvard Crimson reports, the 17-year-old Palestinian is trying to resolve his case with Harvard’s lawyers from Lebanon, where he lives with his family.
Ajawi was reportedly detained at the airport for eight hours, during which he was questioned by immigration officers and forced to hand over his electronics.
While there, he and several other international students were questioned by immigration officers, but all of them were eventually allowed to leave besides Ajjawi, who was subjected to additional questioning about his religious practices in Lebanon.
Ajjawi said an officer told him to unlock his phone and laptop, which were searched for about five hours.
READ: ICE keeps arresting immigration activists. They think they're being targeted.
Afterwards, he said, the officers questioned him about posts on his social media feed critical of the U.S.
“After the five 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 U.S. on my friend[s] list,” Ajjawi told the Crimson.
“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,” Ajjawi said. “I have no single post on my timeline discussing politics.”
He was deported anyway.
It’s not immediately clear whether Ajjawi was deported because of the social media posts or for another reason. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to VICE News’ request for comment.
Cover: A general view of one of the many gates to the Harvard University Campus in the Boston suburb of Cambridge on August 31, 2018 in Boston MA. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images)
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