Judge cancels hearing for Brown University doctor deported despite his order

A federal judge canceled a Monday morning hearing for a doctor who was deported to Lebanon after demanding to know whether U.S. Customs and Border Protection had "wilfully" disobeyed his order to keep her in the country amid a challenge to her deportation.

Lawyers for the government said the doctor, Rasha Alawieh, "had already departed the United States" by the time Customs and Border Protection officers at Boston's Logan Airport received notice of Judge Leo Sorokin's instructions, the judge said in a brief order Monday.

Alawieh, a Rhode Island transplant doctor and assistant professor at Brown University, was detained on Thursday in Boston after visiting family in Lebanon, her cousin claimed in a lawsuit challenging Alawieh's detention.