Two Houston doctors facing removal by Immigration officials are granted temporary stay
Two prominent Houston doctors facing removal by immigration officials to their native India have been granted a temporary, 90-day reprieve while they try to sort the paper-work that will allow them to continue living and working legally in the United States.
The married couple are both neurologists and faced removal Thursday after immigration officials refused at the last minute to extend their temporary permission to stay in the U.S., potentially jeopardizing the care of dozens of patients who have specialized surgeries scheduled with the two doctors in coming weeks.
It's the latest example of the government taking an unusually hard line on immigration and declining to consider cases on an individual basis.
"I have 50 patients today and 40 patients tomorrow," said Dr. Pankaj Satija, a neurologist who helped found the Pain and Headache Centers of Texas. "I'm just concerned they'll be left in a lurch. They could land up in the emergency room."
The couple has been here legally for more than a decade after coming here from India to do research and complete their medical residencies. The Houston Methodist Hospital System sponsored Satija for his green card around 2008 and the Labor Department certified that no Americans could perform his job in 2010.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Immigration-officials-threaten-to-remove-two-11039471.php
