Clemson Graduate Denied Entry Into U.S. After President Trump’s Ban

CLEMSON, S.C. (WOLO/WLOS)— Nazanin Zinouri, who graduated with a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Clemson University and won the university’s Janine Anthony Bowen Graduate Fellow award last year, was removed from her flight bound for the United States, according to a post on her Facebook account.

According to the post, Zinouri flew to Iran to visit family and a few days later found out President Donald Trump signed an executive order barring individuals from Syria, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan, and Somalia from entering the United States for 90 days.

The post states that Zinouri booked a flight back to the United States and connected in Dubai.

“After waiting in the line to get my documents checked and after 40 minutes of questions and answers, I boarded the plane to Washington [D.C.], only to have two TSA officers getting in and ask me to disembark the plane!!! Yes after almost 7 years of living the the United States, I got deported!!!” the post said.

She was a “data scientist” at Modjoul and lived in Clemson, according to her Facebook account, and she is from Tehran, Iran.

“No one warned me when I was leaving,” the post said. “No one cared what will happen to my dog or my job or my life there. No one told me what I should do with my car that is still parked at the airport parking. Or what to do with my house and all my belongings.”

We reached out to a spokesperson for Clemson University and Zinouri, but did not get responses from either of them by the time this article was posted.

Senator Lindsey Graham issued this statement via Twitter: “We have been in touch with and are working to assist Clemson graduate Nazanin Zinouri.”