Ismail B. Ajjawi, an incoming freshman, was supposed to arrive on the elite-college 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 Boston Logan International 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 except 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.
Afterwards, he said, the officers questioned him about posts on his social media feed that were 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 sent back anyway.