UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK SUHA AMIN ABDULLAH ABUSHAMMA, Petitioner, -against- DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States; U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY (“DHS”); U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION (“CBP”); JOHN KELLY, Secretary of DHS; KEVIN K. MCALEENAN, Acting Commissioner of CBP; and JAMES T. MADDEN, New York Field Director, CBP, Respondents. No. 1:17-cv-00488-CBA
AMENDED PETITION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS AND COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF
 
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INTRODUCTION
 
1.
 
Petitioner, Dr. Suha Abushamma, is a Sudanese national who was granted a H-1B visa in order pursue a three-year medical residency program at the Cleveland Clinic. She is in the midst of her first year of the program and focuses on internal medicine. She lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio. She has a fiancé in the United States, who is also a doctor and lives in Michigan. They plan to be married this summer in the United States. 2.
 
On the morning of January 28, 2017 at approximately 11 A.M., Dr. Abushamma arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport (“JFK”) on Saudi Airlines (“SVA”) flight 21. Dr. Abushamma was returning to the United States from a short visit with her family in Saudi Arabia; she intended to catch a connecting flight at JFK to her home in Cleveland. 3.
 
Instead of being allowed to transit to her connecting flight, Dr. Abushamma was detained for roughly nine hours during which time she was not given anything to eat and not permitted to speak with her lawyer. She was then denied entry to the United States pursuant to President Donald Trump’s January 27, 2017, Executive Order titled, “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” Kroman Decl. Ex. 1
1
 (the “EO”). 4.
 
While she was detained, Dr. Abushamma was misled and coerced by Customs and Border Patrol (“CBP”) agents into signing a form the agents described as requiring her to return to Saudi Arabia. The CBP agents did not tell her and she did not understand that she was actually signing a Form I-275, Withdrawal of Application for Admission/Consular Notification (“Form I-275”). No one told her that upon signing the form, her valid H-1B visa would purportedly be cancelled.
1
 References to “Kroman Decl. Ex. __” are exhibits appended to the Declaration of Jennifer L. Kroman (“Kroman Decl.”), dated January 31, 2017.
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2 5.
 
Instead, CBP agents falsely told Dr. Abushamma that if she did not sign the form, she would be forcibly removed from the United States and banned from re-entry for five years. 6.
 
During this time, despite her repeated requests, Dr. Abushamma was not allowed by CBP agents to speak with her lawyer. Nor would CBP speak with her lawyer who was ready and willing to speak to CBP. Dr. Abushamma, who knew that lawyers were working to secure her release, was further denied additional time to wait for any news from her lawyers. Instead, CBP Agents falsely told Dr. Abushamma that her lawyers could not help her and that she would have to leave the United States absent an order from the Supreme Court of the United States. 7.
 
While Dr. Abushamma was detained at JFK, her lawyers filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus on her behalf. The writ was emailed to the Judge for the Eastern District of New York who was on duty for emergency applications at that time (Judge Donnelly) at 7:42 P.M. It was subsequently filed with the Court electronically, Pet. for Writ of Habeas Corpus and Compl. for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief (Jan. 28, 2017), ECF No.1. 8.
 
It was only after Dr. Abushamma signed the Form I-275 at approximately 7:50 P.M. that she was allowed to make one phone call. Even after she signed the Form, CBP agents continued to discourage Dr. Abushamma from calling her lawyers, advising her that it was useless. She therefore called a friend to let him know she was being forced back to Saudi Arabia. 9.
 
At approximately 8:45 P.M., in a case that challenged the legality of the EO on behalf of two arriving aliens and a class of all others similarly situated, Judge Donnelly issued an order that prohibited the removal of, among other persons, any “holders of valid immigrant and non-immigrant visas. . . from Sudan . . . legally authorized to enter the United States.” See
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