Meanwhile, in America

The victims du jour of America’s cruel and often senseless immigration policy, which has grown particularly Kafkaesque under deportation-crazed Donald Trump, are not low-wage Mexican workers, but Indianborn husband and wife doctors in Houston. He is Dr. Pankaj Satija. She is Dr. Monika Ummat.

He is a star neurologist, a founder of the Pain and Headache Centers of Texas; he performs, according to the Houston Chronicle, about 200 operations per month. She is also a leading neurologist, treating epileptic boys and girls at the Texas Children’s Hospital.e

They have a 7-year-old boy and a 4-year-old girl, both born here and therefore, U.S. citizens.

Satija and Ummat have not a speck on their records, not even a parking ticket. They pay their taxes. They are homeowners. And they are living and working legally, having arrived in 2002 to do research and complete medical residencies and fellowships at top universities.

But “legal” and “illegal” are sometimes not simple, binary classifications for immigrants.

Roughly 10 years ago, Satija’s employer sponsored him for permanent residency; because of an immense backlog, particularly for Indians, the couple has been granted provisional status, which they renew every two years.

And on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. government officials told these two brilliant professionals, this husband and wife, this father and mother, they had 24 hours to pack their bags, pull their children from school and leave the United States for India — because of a new policy that would prevent them for extending their temporary permission while awaiting permanent residency status.

Satija and Ummat got lucky. Their story made the papers. Their U.S. senator, John Cornyn, intervened — and, as they learned upon reporting to customs officials at the airport, won a 90-day reprieve to get their paperwork in order.

Many immigrants with less wealth, education and leverage would be gone by now.

Is that really the America we want?