Iranian cancer specialist detained at US airport despite holding visa

Boston Children's Hospital said in a statement on Tuesday that Dr Mohsen Dehnavi was prevented from entering the country with his wife and three young children at the Logan International Airport.

This was despite Dr Dehnavi holding a J-1 visa for visiting scholars. 

"[Dehnavi] and his family are being detained at Logan are supposed to be sent back to Iran later today," the hospital statement said.

"Boston Children's hopes that this situation will be quickly resolved and Dr Dehnavi and his family will be released and allowed to enter the US. The hospital is committed to doing its utmost to support Dr Dehnavi and his family."

Despite Iran being one of six countries affected by President Donald Trump's recently reinstated immigration controls, US Customs and Border Control has said that the Dehnavi family's detention was for "reasons unrelated" to Trump's executive order.

The stop, customs spokesperson Stephanie Malin said, was based on information discovered during the agency's review.

Malin added that visa applicants "bear the burden of proof" to meet all requirements and can be denied entry for a range of reasons, including health-related issues, criminality or security concerns.

President Trump's controversial travel ban that tightly limits immigration from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Sudan and Yemen was recently reinstated by a Supreme Court ruling. 

The ban allows only individuals from the six countries with a "credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States" to travel to the US.

Advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Iranian American Council, have suggested that the Dehnavi family's detention may be in violation of the Supreme Court order.

"The family is very worried," said Shayan Modarres, a lawyer for the DC-based NIAC, which has been in contact with the family. "If it is a minor paperwork issue, then something needs to be told to the family so they can resolve it."

Others have said that in the least, the family's detention shows the danger of "overzealous enforcement" of the draconian immigration controls.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a Democrat, told reporters he was waiting to hear more about the Dehnavis' circumstances, but also suggested the case was an example of concerns with the travel ban.

"Many people, doctors and nurses and people who are students working in the world-class institutions that we have are going to be boxed out or left out of the country," he said.