A four-month-old girl with a serious heart condition was granted an emergency waiver late Friday after she was denied a flight to the United States thanks to Donald Trump’s travel ban on seven majority-Muslim countries.
“This evening we were pleased to learn that the federal government has now granted Fatemeh Reshad and her family boarding documents to come to the United States,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement Friday, adding that a law firm will fund the family's travel to the states and doctors at New York's Mount Sinai Hospital will perform the surgery pro-bono.
“Bizarrely, the federal ban would prevent this child from receiving medical care and literally endanger her life,” he continued. “It is repugnant to all we believe as Americans and as members of the human family.”
Prior to the announcement, Fatemeh’s parents were scheduled to meet with paramedics in Portland, Oregon but were prohibited from entering the country from Tehran.
“For getting the visa, they ask for a lot of the paperwork,” the infant’s uncle, Samad Teghizadeh, told told KPTV news . “You have to do many things, you know. For three weeks we [were] working for every single thing they wanted.”
“It’s like a nightmare,” he continued. “All the paper, everything was ready, and just in the last minute they canceled everything.”
In response to her story, congressional Democrats sent a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson requesting the waiter for the infant and her parents. The four-month-old has two holes in her heart and a twisted artery which requires immediate surgery. The family’s attorney told the Guardian that there’s a 20-30 percent chance of success with surgery in Iran and there’s a 97 percent chance of success in the states.
