An Iranian cancer researcher who had been headed to
a prominent Boston hospital to work as a scholar was sent back to his
country on Tuesday, a day after U.S. immigration officials detained him
and his family, media said.
According to Reuters Mohsen Dehnavi,
his wife and three children were put on a return flight at about 9 p.m.
after being detained late on Monday at Logan International Airport, the
Boston Globe said, citing Stephanie Malin, a spokeswoman for U.S.
Customs and Border Patrol.
The detentions were
apparently unrelated to President Donald Trump's executive order
temporarily banning travellers from six majority-Muslim countries,
according to Boston Children's Hospital and immigration law specialists,
who said Dehnavi had a valid entry visa.
"Based
on what we know, it's not travel-ban related. It's probably something
much more stupid than that," said Susan Church, chair of the New England
chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association.
"The rules say if you have a valid visa you have to be let in," she told Reuters.
A
spokesman for U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement did not
immediately respond to telephone calls and emails to seek comment.
Two
weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a revised version of Trump's
ban on travellers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen,
though it excluded visitors with a "bona fide" family tie. The executive
order itself did not apply to travellers with valid visas.
During
the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had called for a "complete and
total shutdown" of Muslims entering the United States, a move he called
necessary to protect national security in the wake of attacks at home
and abroad by Islamist extremists.
Opponents of the idea called it a violation of the U.S. Constitution's protections for free expression of religion.
Trump's
initial January version of the order, which also applied to Iraq,
caused a weekend of chaos at U.S. airports as travellers were turned
away upon arrival and crowds of thousands turned out to protest against
the move.
