(NewsNation) — Brown University has issued a memo to international professors and students, warning against travel abroad.
The campuswide email sent on Sunday, per the Wall Street Journal, comes after assistant professor Dr. Rasha Alawieh, who has a valid visa, was deported to Lebanon.
According to authorities cited by WCVB, federal agents said they found photos of Iran’s supreme leader and ex-Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Alawieh’s phone after she returned to Lebanon to allegedly attend the funeral of Nasrallah.
Homeland Security described Nasrallah as “a brutal terrorist who led Hezbollah, responsible for killing hundreds of Americans over a four-decade terror spree.”
The university said its email was sent “out of an abundance of caution” and that leaving the country amid possible travel bans and alterations to re-entry requirements “may affect travelers’ ability to return to the U.S. as planned.”
President Donald Trump is currently considering travel restrictions for 43 countries that would use a three-tiered system outlining varying levels of scrutiny regarding entry into the United States.
Former Obama campaign policy adviser David Tafuri told “NewsNation Now” on Sunday that while details are currently limited, there’s “nothing wrong” with “changing visa policies to make America safer.”
Under Trump’s proposal, there would be three categories of restriction with varying provisions: red (complete visa suspension), orange (partial visa suspension) or yellow (probationary period).
Countries in the proposed red category include Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Turkmenistan are in the orange category.
The yellow category includes Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Vanuatu and Zimbabwe.