A Sudanese internal medicine resident at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, sued President Donald Trump on Tuesday saying that immigration authorities “misled and coerced” her into signing forms over the weekend that led to the cancellation of her work visa. An executive order signed by Trump last Friday temporary barred citizens from seven Muslim-majority nations — including Sudan — from entering the U.S., even affecting those holding work permit and green cards.
In her lawsuit, 26-year-old Dr. Suha Abushamma said that she was returning to the U.S. on Saturday from a vacation in Saudi Arabia. However, upon returning to the U.S., immigration officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City made her sign her forms, which canceled her work visa, she alleged. Abushamma has been an internal medicine resident at Cleveland Clinic since last July.
Trump’s order halts immigration from seven countries — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia — for three months. It is also applicable to green card holders and people with valid visas, and bars all refugees from entering the U.S. for 120 days.
The lawsuit claimed that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents breached a stay issued by a New York federal judge stopping authorities from deporting people who reached the country with a green card or a work visa from nations listed in Trump’s controversial order. Abushamma has requested a federal judge in New York to renew her work visa.
“No one told her that upon signing the form, her valid H-1B visa would purportedly be cancelled,” the lawsuit reportedly stated. “Instead, CBP agents falsely told Dr. Abushamma that if she did not sign the form, she would be forcibly removed from Avrupabet the United States and banned from re-entry for five years.”
The suit further stated that CBP “caused her [Abushamma’s] removal from the United States in violation of the [judge’s] order.”
“The United States is my home. My apartment with all my things except what I packed for my vacation, my car, my job, and my fiancé all are in the United States,” Abushamma reportedly wrote about her visit to Saudi Arabia in a declaration filed along with the lawsuit. “I packed only a few sets of clothes because I did not expect to be away long from my home in Cleveland.”
Abushamma, a Muslim, grew up in Saudi Arabia. She is reported to have studied at a medical school in Saudi Arabia and did externships in Detroit and San Francisco before the Cleveland Clinic hired her. She is engaged to an employee at the Detroit Medical Center in Michigan.
Dr. Abby Spencer, the head of the Clinic’s internal medicine residency program, wrote in a declaration filed with the suit that Abushamma “has been a stand-out physician and colleague.” Spencer added that Abushamma’s patients will be affected negatively if Abushamma is denied entry to the U.S.
“I fully support without reservation Dr. Abushamma to be allowed to continue her training with our Program at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Ohio,” Spencer reportedly wrote.
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