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DMC Doctor Separated From Wife, Baby Under Trump Travel Ban

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Abubaker Hassan and Alma. (Photo: Abubaker Hassan)

DETROIT (WWJ) - President Donald Trump's travel ban is keeping a local Muslim family apart.

Abubaker Hassan, a Detroit Medical Center doctor living in Dearborn on a visa, may have to wait another three months before being reunited with his wife and baby.

Sara Hamad, who has also been living in the U.S. on a visa, took the couple's 4-year-old daughter Alma, to visit family in Qatar in November. They were supposed to come back home to metro Detroit this week, but can't because of Trump's executive order putting a hold on travel from seven predominately Muslim countries.

"We're trying to keep in touch. You know, Snapchat, FaceTime, whatever, but still it's a very difficult situation," Hassan told WWJ's Zahra Huber.

"I couldn't concentrate on my work. I'm trying to take off days just to focus on these things, and trying to be safe with my patients."

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Sara Hamad, left. with Abubaker Hassan. (Photo: Abubaker Hassan)

Hassan, who is doing his residency at the DMC, says he understands that the ban is intended to keep Americans safe. But, he says, he's already been through an extensive vetting process to get his visa.

"Right now I'm working at the VA, so before getting medical licenses you get all the fingerprinting, all the security clearance," Hassan said. "And to work at the VA you need like an extra clearance. So I thought that I did all these things and I'm not sure what they do more just to make sure that we are not bad people."

Both Hassan and Hamad are from Sudan.

Trump on Sunday defended the his order, stressing that it does not amount to what some have been calling a "Muslim ban."

"America is a proud nation of immigrants and we will continue to show compassion to those fleeing oppression, but we will do so while protecting our own citizens and border. America has always been the land of the free and home of the brave," the president said. [More here].

[Moving Budweiser Super Bowl Ad Spotlights Immigration]

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