Desi doctor couple gets relief from deportation

Houston, March 31: Two prominent IndianAmerican doctors facing deportation as their travel documents had expired have got a last-minute reprieve on humanitarian grounds, in an unusual act of grace by US authorities who seem to be bent on cracking down on illegal immigrants.

Dr Pankaj Satija and his wife Dr Monika Ummat, both neurologists, have been working legally in the US for the last 15 years. As they were about to board a plane for India on Thursday, they were granted a 90-day extension on humanitarian grounds.

The problem started when they visited India to see Mr Satija’s sick father in October 2016. On their return, they were stopped at the Bush International airport by Customs and Border Protection officials because their travel documents

had expired, the Houston Chronicle reported. The CBP officials stamped their travel document saying that it would expire in June this year, when in fact the US Citizenship and Immigration Services noted that their document actually expired in June, 2016. Upon returning to the US about a week later, a CBP official at the airport noted the discrepancy. The officials, however, allowed them to enter temporarily to correct the error. On Wednesday, they were told by immigration officials that they had 24 hours to leave the US. The couple had called on their legislators and had taken the media.