Trump ’s Immigration Policies Are Making It Harder for Foreign Doctors to Work in the U.S. — And That Could Hurt Patients

For the past four years, Daniel, an Israeli-born doctor completing a medical residency in the U.S., has secured an H-1B visa for temporary specialized workers without a hitch. But this May, without warning, the government put his status in the U.S. in danger. Daniel, who withheld his last name for fear of retaliation, is one of many foreign-born medical residents across the country who have received visa rejections or delays since mid-April — similar to rejections thousands of H-1B applicants in other high-paying industries have recently received — prompting a flurry of legal activity from medical groups, hospital systems and individual doctors. His situation is only the latest threat to international medical graduates. Several immigration policy changes under the Trump administration have left them deterred from or unable to practice medicine in the U.S. — which could be disastrous for a health care system already in the midst of a growing physician shortage. The changes could particularly affect patient care in community and underserved urban hospitals. “I don’t want to sound paranoid, but I just think the current administration is trying to intimidate foreign workers and trying to intimidate hospital systems,” Daniel says. “For somebody who’s lived in the country for four years, that’s definitely not something I was expecting.” (A White House spokesperson referred TIME to United States Citizenship and Immigration...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized healthytime medicine onetime Source Type: news