An Aroostook County family physician has filed a lawsuit claiming she has been denied reentry into the U.S. from the Canadian border.
The 52-year-old woman, going under the pseudonym Roya Afshar, says she briefly left the country at Fort Fairfield to obtain a stamp on her visa in order to update her driver’s license.
She claims she has been denied reentry since April.
The lawsuit says the woman is from Iran, is a Canadian citizen, and has been working in Presque Isle since 2022 under a valid H-1B visa.
The suit also says the woman and her family hold hatred for the Iranian regime, with the father of her husband having been executed by the regime. She says she fled to Canada in 2008 and has no intention of returning to Iran.
The woman’s complaint requests the court find the grounds of Border Patrol’s denial of reentry to be “unlawful,” and cover reasonable attorney fees and other costs. She’s also asking the federal court to find that no Terrorism Related Inadmissibility Grounds (“TRIG”) exist to lawfully support Customs and Border Patrol’s determination that she is inadmissible.
The lawsuit names U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, and Derrick Stamper, chief patrol agent of Border Patrol’s Houlton Sector, as defendants.
