{"id":50757,"date":"2017-02-01T18:56:11","date_gmt":"2017-02-02T00:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=50757"},"modified":"2017-02-01T19:03:24","modified_gmt":"2017-02-02T01:03:24","slug":"u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. relents, honors doctor&#8217;s visa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Urvashi Verma <\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"dropcap\">U.S. officials confirmed late Wednesday that Chicago-bound Syrian national Dr. Amer al Homssi, holder of a valid U.S. visa who was prevented from returning to the United States last Sunday, will be allowed to re-enter the country on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey called us at 8:15 this morning and asked us if we wanted to settle,\u201d said al Homssi\u2019s lawyer, Thomas Anthony Durkin of Chicago. \u201cI give credit to the government lawyers,\u201d Durkin said in a press conference Wednesday at the Dirksen Federal Building.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Attorney\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/202125360?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Al Homssi, an internal medicine resident at Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, was stopped at the Abu Dhabi airport when trying to board a flight back to Chicago. He filed a lawsuit in Chicago federal district court against President Donald Trump on Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The 24-year-old doctor had traveled to the UAE to get married and was at the airport preparing to board a flight back to Chicago when a U.S. immigration officer, acting upon President Trump&#8217;s travel ban issued late Friday, seized his passport and boarding pass and ordered him to a secondary screening area, according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n<p>It alleges that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials crossed out al Homssi\u2019s visa with black pen and annotated it \u201cCancelled E.O. 59447v.8\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>In support of al Homssi\u2019s return, doctors from Advocate Christ Hospital gathered Wednesday inside the courtroom of Judge Elaine E. Bucklo. In mid-afternoon Durkin told the judge he was nearing a settlement with government lawyers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found out last night from our department chair. He would have lost his position as a resident if he did not return in less than 30 days,\u201d said Dr. Osamah Abedallah, a colleague.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are thrilled that he will be back tomorrow. I\u2019m sure his patients will be thrilled,\u201d said Dr. Taylor Brinton, who works with al Homssi at Advocate Christ Hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Al Homssi\u2019s case had generated fear among members of the Islamic community, said Shoab Khadri, president of the Islamic Center of Naperville. \u201cWe are hearing from community and family members that they are afraid to travel fearing that they may not be allowed to re-enter,\u201d said Khadri.<\/p>\n<div class=\"featurecaption\">Photo at top: Chicago attorney Thomas Durkin representing Syrian national Dr. Amer al Homssi at the press conference in Chicago Federal Building on Feb 1. (Urvashi Verma Medill)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Urvashi Verma U.S. officials confirmed late Wednesday that Chicago-bound Syrian national Dr. Amer al Homssi, holder of a valid U.S. visa who was prevented from returning to the United States last Sunday, will be allowed to re-enter the country on Thursday. \u201cThey called us at 8:15 this morning and asked us if we wanted [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":347,"featured_media":50868,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2951,3516],"tags":[192],"class_list":["post-50757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politicsnational-security","category-winter-2017","tag-promo"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>U.S. relents, honors doctor&#039;s visa - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"U.S. relents, honors doctor&#039;s visa - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Urvashi Verma U.S. officials confirmed late Wednesday that Chicago-bound Syrian national Dr. Amer al Homssi, holder of a valid U.S. visa who was prevented from returning to the United States last Sunday, will be allowed to re-enter the country on Thursday. \u201cThey called us at 8:15 this morning and asked us if we wanted [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-02-02T00:56:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-02-02T01:03:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/Atty-.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"603\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"urvashiverma2017\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"urvashiverma2017\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/\",\"name\":\"U.S. relents, honors doctor's visa - Medill Reports Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/Atty-.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-02-02T00:56:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-02-02T01:03:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/#\/schema\/person\/b7049616cf69e33badfcec7ad3d2fddd\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/u-s-relents-honors-doctors-visa\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/Atty-.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2017\/02\/Atty-.jpg\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":603,\"caption\":\"Photo at top: Chicago-based attorney Thomas Durkin representing Syrian national Dr. Amer al Homssi at the press conference in Chicago Federal Building on Feb 1. 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