Doctor Blocked From Returning To Chicago Sues Trump Over Travel Ban
CHICAGO (CBS CHICAGO) — A doctor at Advocate Christ Medical Center who traveled to the United Arab Emirates to get married has now been stranded by the Trump administration’s travel ban, and cannot return to Chicago because he was born in Syria.
At 24 years old, Dr. Amer Al Homssi was looking forward to finishing his internal medicine residency in Chicago, according to his attorney, Thomas Durkin.
However, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing a 90-day ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries, U.S. officials cancelled Al Homssi’s visa.
“A diagonal line right through it from corner to corner, and whoever wrote it said it’s cancelled, and then it has the executive order and the number,” Durkin said.
Al Homssi cannot return to the U.S., and cannot stay in the United Arab Emirates, so he might be forced to go back to Syria. Although it is technically his homeland, Al Homssi hasn’t been to Syria since he was 17, Durkin said.
“He could end up back in Damascus, where he’s never lived, and which is a war zone. It’s an insane Catch-22,” Durkin said.
Al Homssi has filed a federal lawsuit against Trump, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, challenging the president’s executive order. Durkin called the travel ban “absurd.”
“I believe he’s in this dilemma because he’s a Muslim, pure and simple,” Durkin said of his client. “It’s a classic ‘Ugly American’ situation, I think.”
A hearing on Al Homssi’s lawsuit has been scheduled for Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo.
The attending physician overseeing Al Homssi’s residency said the young doctor’s future could be ruined, because – according to rules already in place before Trump’s order – he has only one month to return to the program at Advocate Christ, or his position will be eliminated.
Al Homssi has filed a federal lawsuit against Trump, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, challenging the president’s executive order. Durkin called the travel ban “absurd.”
“I believe he’s in this dilemma because he’s a Muslim, pure and simple,” Durkin said of his client. “It’s a classic ‘Ugly American’ situation, I think.”
A hearing on Al Homssi’s lawsuit has been scheduled for Wednesday morning before U.S. District Judge Elaine Bucklo.
The attending physician overseeing Al Homssi’s residency said the young doctor’s future could be ruined, because – according to rules already in place before Trump’s order – he has only one month to return to the program at Advocate Christ, or his position will be eliminated.