A tumultuous journey ended with a warm embrace after a Chicago-area doctor trying to returning to the United States was left stranded amid President Donald Trump's travel ban this week.
Dr. Amer Al Homssi arrived at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport to a crowd of colleageus and his attorney, who fought to help him return.
"I'm very grateful to be back in the United States," he said. "Grateful to my lawyers and the government lawyers who were gracious enough to allow me in."
Homssi was stranded abroad after traveling to the United Arab Emirates to get married but a federal judge ruled Wednesday he could return to the city despite his education visa being suddenly canceled amid Trump's travel order.
Homssi holds citizenship in both Syria and the United Arab Emirates and he was married on Jan. 23 in the UAE. He attempted to return to his residency from Abu Dhabi International Airport to O’Hare Airport on Sunday, his attorneys say, but was stopped by U.S. security who said his Visa was canceled.
"This is a pretty serious issue," said his attorney Thomas Durkin. "He's a doctor. This isn't... it wasn't like he was coming to ride the Staten Island ferry."
Durkin said the government agreed that Trump's executive order to restrict travel from several countries should not include those with green cards or special visas, like the one Homssi had.
"There's language in there that says he has to pass inspection," Durkin said. "What that means is they want to make sure nothing happened between the time he left for the airport this afternoon and tonight."
Had the resident in internal medicine been banned from coming back to the U.S., it would have had "horrible serious consequences" for his career as well as his patients, his attorneys said.
A lawsuit was filed in federal court Tuesday on Homssi's behalf.
Trump’s executive order, signed Friday, temporarily bars travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries as well as refugees across the globe—including Syria. Lawyers for Homssi say it is “unmistakably clear” that Trump’s executive order targets Muslims.
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Trump in a statement Sunday said the order was “not about religion” but keeping the country safe from terrorists. The president said the seven countries on the travel ban list were previously identified by the Obama administration as sources of terror.
“To be clear, this is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting,” Trump said.
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Homssi's attorneys said the state department was still finalizing documents in the case Wednesday evening, but U.S. Customs has agreed to let the doctor back into Chicago when he landed Thursday morning at O'Hare.
Late Wednesday night, Homssi was finally boarding a plane back to the city.
"I’m really happy to be here and I would like to thank everyone -- my family, friends, colleagues, residents and program, hospital, lawyer and everyone who made it possible -- all the support I got all over the media, if it weren’t for you guys I wouldn’t be here," he said in a video message as he prepared to board his flight. "Thank you so much."
