SOUTHWESTERN INDIANA — The Department of Homeland Security last week exempted medical doctors with pending green card and visa applications from a Trump administration pause on immigration application reviews for people from countries deemed high-risk. The exemption allows Dr. Faysal Alghoula, a Libyan pulmonologist and Intensive Care Unit doctor in southwestern Indiana, to renew his green card and continue caring for roughly 1,000 patients.

Alghoula, who has lived in the United States since 2016, serves a mostly rural population spanning parts of Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. His current visa is set to expire in September if his application is denied. He had been unable to renew his green card after the Trump administration last year stopped reviewing applications for people from a list of countries deemed high-risk.

"It is about four to five months wait to get the pulmonologist here," Alghoula said. He said he remained anxious about the next step in the process. "I'm still scared to go to my interview," he said.

Physicians organizations and immigration attorneys had sought the exemption for medical doctors with pending applications for months. Several doctors have reached out to the American Academy of Family Physicians seeking help, a spokesperson said. Foreign-trained doctors disproportionately work in underserved areas, according to the National Library of Medicine.

The pause on immigration application reviews remains in effect for thousands of researchers and entrepreneurs from 39 countries, including Iran, Afghanistan and Venezuela. This year the Trump administration also stopped reviewing visa applications for citizens of more than 75 countries over concerns they would seek public assistance. Many applicants whose cases are on hold cannot legally work, obtain health insurance, or get a driver's license, and those who leave the U.S. will not be allowed to reenter.

The pause on application reviews followed the shooting of two National Guard troops by an Afghan citizen. The administration said the shooting showed "what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people."

Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney, said the exemption for doctors was one development in a broader landscape of restrictions. "There are lots of bans and lots of pauses that are happening right now," Siskind said. "It is all about making life miserable for people who are here legally so they will choose other countries," he said.