NY Doctor Stuck in Sudan After Trump's Immigration Order

Dr. Kamal Fadlalla is a resident at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn.

ByABC News
January 31, 2017, 5:19 AM

— -- Friends and colleagues are rallying behind a New York doctor who was left stranded in Sudan because of President Donald Trump's executive order on immigration.

Dr. Kamal Fadlalla, a resident at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, was supposed to return to the U.S. from his native Sudan on Sunday, his friend and colleague Dr. Menzin Khalid told ABC station WABC on Monday.

"He went home to visit his family. It had been a year and a half since he had seen his mom and his sister, so he thought now is a good time to go visit them," Khalid said.

Unfortunately, Fadlalla planned to return on the same weekend that Trump announced an executive order that temporarily forbids entry into the U.S. for people from Sudan and six other predominately Muslim countries — Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Lybia, Iraq and Iran.

Trump's order also places restrictions on Syrian refugees indefinitely.

Khalid said Fadlalla called him on Sunday and said, "I got my boarding pass to New York, and then I was informed by the airline company that my name has been called and I am not allowed to go."

Fadlalla is one of many who suddenly found themselves stranded in other countries over the weekend.

As of Sunday evening, 348 individuals with plans to travel to the U.S. were recommended by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to be denied boarding at foreign airports under the order.

In a post on its Facebook page, the Committee of Interns and Residents at Interfaith Medical Center said it was rallying in support of Fadlalla. Members posted pictures of themselves holding colorful signs reading, for example, "No immigrant deserves discrimination" and "Immigrants keep hospitals running."

The CIR is a union that represents more than 14,000 interns, residents and fellows, according to its website.

"Other members are now unable to leave the U.S. to visit family in their home countries," the group said. "These laws are inhumane and unacceptable and cannot continue."

Khalid echoed the union's sentiments, saying, "I have the same thing. We are all pursuing a dream. We are all doing the best we can to improve ourselves and to do our best by our patients."

Related Topics