Surgeon contesting his deportation order: Immigration says he has been here illegally since visa expired in '88
"I'm in here with convicts, sex offenders, whatever," Ghoul, 54, said in a recent interview from a holding cell at the Correction Corporation of America facility near Bush Intercontinental Airport. "This is not what I needed."
Local Middle Eastern and North African leaders are trying to help him, and his new attorney is working to reopen his case. Some advocates say his problems have been exacerbated by the government's emphasis on rounding up Muslim illegal immigrants after Sept. 11, 2001.
"We should not put this guy in jail," said Dr. Abdel Fustok, a well-known local surgeon and Arab activist. "We should give him an award."
He described Ghoul as a hard-working surgeon who helped save many lives and "was being paid pennies for what he was doing."
Invited to Houston
But the government portrays Ghoul as a person unworthy of sympathy, noting that his legal problems began long before the May 2001 court date he and his attorney missed.
"He has been working unlawfully in the United States since 1988," said Luisa Deason, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston.
Ghoul's deportation has been delayed only because he claims to have lost his passport, and the Algerian Embassy in Washington has not yet produced a copy, Deason said.
A native of Oran, on the Mediterranean coast of the North African nation, Ghoul trained in Algeria to become a cardiovascular surgeon and studied English.
He was asked to translate for Dr. Michael DeBakey when the Houston surgeon gave a lecture in Algiers. Ghoul said DeBakey invited him to come to Houston, and he accepted, arriving in 1981 for a residency at Baylor, where he then worked under Dr. J.F. Howell.
"During that time he was under my supervision as both a resident and a fellow, Dr. Ghoul was technically an excellent cardiovascular surgeon, and he greatly contributed to my practice, as well as the medical community as a whole," Howell wrote in a recent letter of support. "He also was a vital part of my research program."
Ghoul came here on a J-1 visa, normally used to continue professional training. The visa did not allow him to obtain a license to practice medicine, according to his current attorney, Edward Gillett.
He applied for an extension of his visa in 1988, but it was denied, according to Deason. He stayed on anyway.
There is some discrepancy as to dates. Howell's letter said Ghoul was working for him until 1986. But Howell's own résumé cites Ghoul as assisting on research that was presented in 1995.
Ghoul said he worked for Howell at both Baylor and Methodist Hospital until 1998. If the government is correct and his visa expired in 1988, that would mean he worked for a decade as a surgery assistant and researcher while he was an illegal immigrant.
Howell declined a request to be interviewed for this story, and a spokeswoman for Baylor would only repeat what Howell said in his letter — that Ghoul was a resident and a research fellow at Baylor only from 1981 to 1986.
Ex-wife's claim
Fustok, who befriended Ghoul, said the leaders at Baylor and Methodist Hospital pledged to help him get legal residency when his J-1 visa expired but failed to do so.
"He was promised that his situation would be taken care of," Fustok said. "If I were in his shoes, I would have raised hell. But he's a very soft-spoken fellow."
A bloody civil war started in Algeria in 1992, and Ghoul said he was afraid to return.
"My own family told me not to come back, it's not safe," he said.
In 1996, Ghoul married Jada Lindon, a U.S. citizen whom he said was his assistant at Baylor. Ghoul applied for legal residency through his marriage.
He filed for divorce less than a year later. Lindon later wrote a letter to the government contending the two were only married to get Ghoul residency papers, according to Deason.
Lindon could not be reached for comment. But Gillett, Ghoul's attorney, contends Lindon's letter was written out of bitterness after the divorce.
Ghoul married again in 1999, this time to a native Houstonian and antique dealer named Cheryl Browning. He continued to seek legal residency.
Deported in absentia
In November 2000, Ghoul and his attorney at the time, Elaine Prappas, appeared in immigration court. The judge told them that they must return to court in May 2001, and if Ghoul did not appear he would be deported in absentia.
Ghoul failed to appear. The judge ordered him deported.
Ghoul says Prappas told him not to worry about the May hearing, because she planned to write a letter seeking a postponement. He said he trusted her.
"That's the reason I hired a lawyer, to keep track of things," he said.
Prappas denied promising to seek a postponement, and she claims she sent Ghoul a letter reminding him of the hearing.
But Prappas concedes she was not in court, either.
"I admit I missed his court date," she said. "It's not something I'm proud of. It was an honest mistake, and I'm sorry about it."
Ghoul took his case to the State Bar of Texas grievance committee, which later issued a "private reprimand" for professional misconduct against Prappas for her handling of the case.
Two years later, the U.S. government announced that male immigrants from 20 countries, most of them Muslims, would have to come to the federal government for a special registration.
Ghoul said he went to Prappas to ask if he needed to appear for the special registration. It was only then he learned he had been ordered deported, he said.
The government says there are about 400,000 immigrants who have been ordered deported yet remain in the country. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the government began a more aggressive effort to find those people, paying particular attention to those from predominantly Muslim countries.
In February, immigration agents came to pick up Ghoul at his home in the Heights. He says he would be able to survive his return to Algeria, but he worries about his wife, who has become severely depressed since his legal problems began.
"If I go, I go," he said. "But it will be a death sentence for my marriage."
"We should not put this guy in jail," said Dr. Abdel Fustok, a well-known local surgeon and Arab activist. "We should give him an award."
He described Ghoul as a hard-working surgeon who helped save many lives and "was being paid pennies for what he was doing."
