A doctor who lives and works in Presque Isle has been stranded in Canada after she was denied reentry into the United States, according to a federal lawsuit.
The 52-year-old woman, who is identified by a pseudonym in the lawsuit, was born in Iran and is a Canadian citizen. She has an H-1B visa that allows her to work as a primary care physician at a Presque Isle hospital, where she’s been employed since December 2022. She lives in town with her husband and child.
The lawsuit asks a judge to review the decision by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and stop the agency from finding the woman inadmissible to the U.S., as well as stop the agency from unlawfully refusing her reentry. It also alleges the doctor’s Fifth Amendment right to due process was violated.
It names the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Rodney Scott, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and Chief Patrol Agent of the Houlton Sector Derrick Stamper. Their agencies did not respond to requests for comment.
The woman’s reentry denial provides new insight into the decisions being made by federal officials working in President Donald Trump’s administration during the ongoing war in Iran. It follows a trend of other Iranians being denied entry or given significant restrictions, such as those deemed “integral” to Iran’s soccer team during the recent World Cup.
The woman tried to renew her Maine driver’s license in February and the Bureau of Motor Vehicles records did not show her updated visa. Almost two months later, the system still had not updated and she went to cross the border to get an updated passport stamp on the advice of a BMV employee, according to the lawsuit.
She crossed the border at Fort Fairfield, for only a minute or so, and immediately turned around to present herself to border protection, according to the lawsuit. It adds that she did not plan to leave the U.S., which is shown by the fact that she didn’t have a suitcase or spare clothing.
The hope was that the check with her valid Canadian passport and renewed H-1B visa should have triggered the update to her immigration status within the BMV. However, the BMV’s guidance was “erroneous,” the lawsuit said.
Applicants for driver’s licenses need to prove they live in Maine and are legally in the U.S., Maine Department of the Secretary of State spokesperson Jana Spalding said. Spalding did not respond to a follow up question about if the BMV provides advice similar to what the woman who filed the lawsuit said she received.
The woman had crossed between Canada and the U.S. without issue before, most recently in August 2025, and “she had no reason to believe that her ability to do so had changed,” according to the lawsuit.
Her visa was renewed in November 2025 and doesn’t expire until 2029, according to a Department of Homeland Security document included in court records. Her Canadian passport is valid until 2034.
When she tried to return to the U.S., border protection held her in custody for 10 hours and she was interrogated, the lawsuit said. They released her after midnight in Canada, where she had no home, no clothing and no possessions beyond a few items in her car.
Border protection told the woman she is inadmissible to the U.S. because she did not have valid documents, despite having a passport and visa, the lawsuit said. Agents did not allow her to call her lawyer when she asked.
While detained, the agents’ questions focused on her mother’s employment with the Iranian government that ended shortly after the revolution in 1980.
The woman told agents that she and her family “hold hatred for the Iranian regime” and pointed to her father’s activism and father-in-law’s execution by the regime. She fled to Canada in 2008 and has no plan to return to Iran, the lawsuit said.
Agents also asked the woman her opinions about the U.S. and Iran war, and she said she was sad that a war was necessary but that she hoped it would make Iran better, the lawsuit said. She also said she is “thankful to President Donald Trump for the death of Iran’s ayatollah, an event she described as a gift to all Iranian people,” according to the lawsuit.
Hours after that a second, more formal interview was required and there is a transcript, but it makes no mention of the first interview, of which there is no transcript.
The woman was allowed to withdraw her request to reenter the U.S. and was then released into Canada. She is still living in Canada while her family is in the U.S.
The agency has provided no information about the status of the woman’s case. It appears her mother’s work history from 45 years ago is why the woman was denied reentry, the lawsuit said.
Border protection erred when it denied reentry to the woman based on “terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds” because she is not an immigrant; she is on a work visa, which makes her a non-immigrant, the lawsuit said.
People can be denied entry for connection to a branch of the Iranian military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The woman has no record of involvement with the group and has never engaged in any Iranian military training, the lawsuit said.