Graham working to assist Clemson engineering grad taken off plane in Dubai

Clemson University graduate Nazanin Zinouri said she was detained Saturday at Dubai International Airport after arriving from Tehran, where she had been visiting family.

On Sunday, Republican U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham wrote on Twitter he’s trying to help resolve the situation.

“We have been in touch with and are working to assist Clemson graduate Nazanin Zinouri,” Graham tweeted.

Zinouri’s situation is a result of the executive order President Donald Trump signed on Friday, suspending all immigration from countries with terrorism concerns for 90 days.

On Saturday, Zinouri posted about her predicament on Facebook.

“After waiting in the line to get my documents checked and after 40 minutes of questions and answers, I boarded the plane to Washington, only to have two TSA officers getting in and ask me to disembark the plane!

“Yes after almost 7 years of living (in) the United States, I got deported.”

She followed up and said in a Sunday email that she wouldn’t be allowed to board a plane to return to the United States. Zinouri said, “those trapped in the airports are free now. Bad news is no airline will board any Iranian on any plane heading to the U.S. So there’s still no way for me to return.”

Zinouri’s tale is going viral. Nearly 50,000 people had shared her Facebook post by Saturday night.

The data scientist had left Clemson for her annual trip to Tehran to visit family in Tehran on Jan. 20. By Wednesday, “we started hearing rumors about new executive orders that will change immigration rules for some countries including Iran,” Zinouri said.

“Before I knew it, it was actually happening...No one warned me when I was leaving, no one cared what will happen to my dog or my job or my life there.”

Zinouri earned her PhD in industrial engineering from Clemson, and was also awarded the 2016 Janine Anthony Bowen Graduate Fellow award which recognizes outstanding academic performance.

For the past 6 months, she has worked at a Greenville technology firm as a data modeler, her Linkedin page states.

The president’s executive order, titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” suspends entry into the United States by most visa holders from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen.

Sen. Graham, in a joint statement with fellow Republican Sen. John McCain, said it is “clear from the confusion at our airports across the nation that President Trump’s executive order was not properly vetted.”

The two said the apparent hasty process “risks harmful results.”

“We should not stop green-card holders from returning to the country they call home,” the statement said. “We should not stop those who have served as interpreters for our military and diplomats from seeking refuge in the country they risked their lives to help. And we should not turn our backs on those refugees who have been shown through extensive vetting to pose no demonstrable threat to our nation, and who have suffered unspeakable horrors, most of them women and children.”

But President Trump replied in a tweet of his own, accusing the two of being “sadly weak on immigration,” adding McCain and Graham should focus on other security issues.

This story was originally published January 29, 2017 at 9:05 PM with the headline "Graham working to assist Clemson engineering grad taken off plane in Dubai."