Harvard Freshman Denied Entry Into The U.S. Because of Friends’ Social Media Posts

Harvard University opened its doors to students, allowing all students to move into dorms and begin classes; however, one was left off of the list. Ismail Ajjawi was denied access to the United States last week,  according to the university. 

“The University is working closely with the student’s family and appropriate authorities to resolve this matter so that he can join his classmates in the coming days,” Jason Newton, Harvard spokesperson wrote in an email to CNN.

US Customs and Border Protection confirmed Ajjawi was turned away at the border, but declined to share any details.

“This individual was deemed inadmissible to the United States based on information discovered during the CBP inspection,” the agency said in a statement to CNN.

The Harvard Crimson described Ajjawi as a “17-year-old Palestinian Resident of Tyre, Lebanon.” The article, written in the school newspaper, cites quotes from a written statement attributed to the incoming freshman, in which he describes his encounter with immigration officials at Boston’s Logan Airport.

Ajjawi says he was detained for eight hours before being turned away. In that time frame, he alleges an immigration official asked him to unlock his devices and continued to search them for five hours. Upon returning to the room, they ”started screaming at him,” according to The Cut.

Ajjawi claims he was then asked about his friends’ social media activities. He stated he was then told that there were “political points of view that oppose the US” expressed by people he follows on social media. 

“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,” he wrote in the Crimson. “I have no single post on my timeline discussing politics.”

After all of these “procedures,” his visa was revoked, and he was sent back to Lebanon, as said in The Crimson. The Lebanese Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.

Legal representatives for Ajjawi also could not be immediately reached for comment and attempts to reach Ajjawi directly were not immediately successful.