Chukwuweike Gwam has dreamed of being a surgeon since he was a young boy.
After 14 years of undergraduate studies, medical school, and residency, the recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) was completing his orthopedic surgery fellowship last year in Brooklyn, New York. This would have been Gwam’s last step before independent practice.
Then, on January 1, the US paused all immigration requests—including work permits, green cards, and family petitions—for immigrants within the US from the 39 countries included in President Donald Trump’s December travel ban. More than 2 million applications have been affected, according to immigration advocacy group Press Unpause.
Since his employment authorization expired on February 23, Gwam has been unable to work. Born in Nigeria, the 38-year-old has lived in the United States since age 7 and later qualified for DACA, which provides work authorization for undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children. He needs to renew his work permit every two years, but even though he applied for renewal months in advance, the hold prevented any final decision on his case.
This has strained his finances and his mental health while adding a greater workload on his colleagues. The hospital where he works wrote to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) multiple times, describing the backlog of patients created by the policy and the difficulty of finding a replacement in a job field where the average training time is 12–16 years.
Gwam, who attends a Pentecostal church in Brooklyn, said he prays with his mother and sisters every day that the hold would lift.
On April 30, Gwam’s prayers appeared to be answered. Due to pressure from physicians, medical organizations, and immigration attorneys, USCIS quietly exempted “medical physicians” from the hold. Then, on June 5, a federal judge in Rhode Island found the hold unlawful, saying USCIS did not go through the proper channels to halt immigration benefits.
Gwam said he was “hopeful but skeptical” when the ruling came out. His work authorization has since been issued, and he’s waiting to receive the documents in the mail before returning to his job.
“This is certainly a testimony,” Gwam said. “But I’ll be honest with you: I’m exhausted.”
For Gwam and the thousands of other foreign doctors, scientists, and students in the US affected by the hold, the battle isn’t over. Initially, USCIS did not comply with the ruling, and the pause remained in place. A week later, on June 11, the court had to issue a separate order that USCIS resume application processing, which the agency said it would do despite “strongly disagree[ing]” with the ruling. USCIS then appealed the verdict. If the court issues a stay, the hold could go back into effect.
Beth Vann, an immigration lawyer in El Paso, Texas, likened the hold to “changing the rules in the middle of the game.”
“You can have people who were in perfectly lawful status who drop out of status because [the US] won’t adjudicate a timely filed petition or application,” Vann said.
Notably, the language of the court’s ruling emphasized that the affected immigrants have complied with all requirements for the authorizations they need.
“The rule of law has to apply to everyone equally and, as evident here, USCIS has neither ‘followed the law’ nor ‘done things the right way,’” Judge John J. McConnell Jr. wrote in his ruling. “Indeed, the agency has violated the very immigration laws that Congress has charged it with administering, as well as the administrative laws that govern the agency’s actions.”
Vann emphasized that according to the Administrative Procedure Act, USCIS must first publicly propose the change and allow time for public comments before making any final decisions—and that the hold passed through none of these channels.
“Delays in adjudication, whether it’s due to a pause or just backlogs, can cause real hardships,” Vann said, adding that she’s seen clients suffer from lengthy waits on needed adjustments. She said she would not be surprised if the case were to reach the Supreme Court.
During the months of uncertainty and financial struggles, Gwam said his faith in God never wavered. But his faith in the American church did. As the immigration hold upended his life and that of other immigrants, he felt that the church did not speak up.
“It’s very clear that this is wrong,” Gwam said. “Immigrants aren’t just random people. We’re in the choir; we’re the ushers. This is not a time for the church to be silent.”
Other Christian professionals from the 39 countries included in the travel ban have been similarly distressed over delayed or lost jobs, strained finances and relationships, and uncertain futures, despite having done everything according to US requirements.
Daniel, a Peruvian born in Venezuela, one of the banned countries, completed his master’s degree at a Texas university in May. He’s been on an F-1 student visa for five years and is awaiting his Optional Practical Training approval and work permit. He got his dream job as a real-time operator at an energy arbitrage company, buying energy and selling it to the operator of the electrical grid in Texas. (CT agreed to allow Daniel to use only his first name, as he fears speaking out could affect his immigration process.)
Yet the immigration hold kept him from starting his job on June 1. Since the court ruling, he has received updates on his case but no final decision. He said his savings will last him through July, but he doesn’t know what he will do after that.
Although he described the last few months as “one of the most difficult periods” of his life, Daniel said the experience brought him closer to God.
“I speak to God several times a day, and those conversations have brought me peace when everything else has felt uncertain,” he said. “I trust that God has a plan for me and that he has seen the hard work, sacrifices, and dedication that brought me to where I am today.”
Some Christian immigrants are banding together, fasting, and praying. A group of Nigerian immigrants affected by the hold has started a group chat, according to a Press Unpause spokesperson. A participant told CT she sends a daily prayer in the chat, and every Wednesday the immigrants fast for six hours.
In addition to issuing the travel ban and immigration-benefits hold, the government is cutting off other legal immigration paths.
George, who asked to be identified by his middle name for fear of reprisal, is an internal medicine resident from Syria who works at a hospital in the northeastern US. A Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holder, he had applied for a work visa to have a more secure status in the US when the hold took effect January 1.
Syrians are eligible for TPS because of the ongoing civil war and the dire humanitarian conditions in the country, but on June 25, the Supreme Court ruled that the Department of Homeland Security’s effort to terminate TPS for Haitians and Syrians is lawful and not subject to judicial review.
USCIS extended the validity of TPS work authorizations until July 10, but after that, TPS could end at any moment. George’s visa application has not budged since January, and he said returning to Syria is not an option for him as an Orthodox Christian. Violent clashes between the Syrian government and Kurdish militants continue, and Christians face danger from extremist groups. Open Doors placed Syria as the world’s sixth-most-dangerous country for Christians.
When the Supreme Court announced its decision, George said God gave him the strength to get through the day.
“I just felt like time stood still,” George said. “I was in the hospital taking care of sick patients, and at the same time, I didn’t know who was going to take care of me.”
Even with so much turmoil, George said the church has been his refuge. “Church was the only place that I can really feel safe at,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to believe that God has the best plan for me, and he never brought me this far so he can let me go.”
TPS is by nature temporary, George said, so he understands people should seek other immigration options. But when those options close off as well and countries of origin are unsafe to return to, he said it’s “putting people in misery.”
“Whoever wants to be a part of this country, they should comply with rules, with law, and they should respect every aspect of the American Constitution. And that has no exceptions,” George said. “But the fact that [the government is] stripping away one status and also withholding other pathways from you, it’s just a thing that doesn’t really make sense.”
George said as a doctor practicing in an underserved area in the US—which currently faces a major doctor shortage—he never expected the path to be so difficult. The stress of the abrupt immigration policy changes under the Trump administration weighs heavily on him.
Recently, he said, he was explaining a terminally ill patient’s condition to the patient’s sister when she hugged him and began to cry. Then George broke down.
“I needed that hug because being away from family and everything, and with everything going on, that broke me a little bit,” George said. “Little did she know that I was crying because of many things. Her brother’s situation was one of them, but I needed to cry that day.
“Being in health care helped me, and I’m happy that I was helping other people. And I really don’t want this to end,” George said. “I had bigger dreams for myself.”
