It appears the Trump administration is doing all it can to drive away health professionals
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Version 0 of 1. President Trump oh-so-graciously excluded medical workers from his latest executive order suspending immigration. So you might assume that whatever his usual anti-immigrant animus, Trump recognizes the need to make foreign-born health professionals feel welcome in this country. At least during a pandemic. You’d be wrong. Immigrants are a critical part of the U.S. health-care system, representing some 18 percent of its workers. In some occupations, the share is even higher: 22 percent of nursing assistants, for instance, and 29 percent of physicians, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Rural areas are especially reliant on immigrant doctors. But long before this executive order was conceived via late-night tweet, the administration began cracking down on virtually every kind of immigration — including the immigration required to staff a health-care system facing chronic worker shortages. The Trump administration has been trying to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), which would eliminate work authorization for the 29,000 “dreamers” in health occupations. Full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic It has also been trying to end Temporary Protected Status designations for six countries, which would result in TPS holders losing their ability to live and work here. Among them are 11,600 health-care workers from El Salvador, Haiti and Honduras, according to estimates from the Center for American Progress. (Challenges to Trump’s actions on both programs are working their way through the courts.) Even those seeking to immigrate to the United States through the lawful pathways Trump usually emphasizes have found it challenging. During normal times, entering this country legally to work in medicine is a bureaucratic, stressful endeavor. It typically requires passing multiple exams, navigating a tortuously convoluted immigration system, assembling reams of paperwork and paying enormous fees. Today — thanks in part to the pandemic — the situation is even worse. Some of the problems are beyond the U.S. government’s control, of course. It’s not Trump’s fault that roads and offices around the world are closed, making it difficult for health professionals to collect documents necessary for their visa applications. But the Trump administration has imposed travel restrictions making it harder for nurses and other health professionals to get here. And it has suspended premium (i.e., faster) processing of skilled-worker visas, which could delay some of the 4,200 foreign-born physicians scheduled to begin residencies here July 1. “I am hopeful I will start my residency, but I think there’s a 50-50 chance it gets delayed,” said one physician from India matched to a residency in New York. This doctor is actually already in the United States; he arrived on a visitor visa earlier this year for his residency interviews, got stranded due to the pandemic and is now staying with family friends. He’s ready and able to help with the covid-19 response but can’t work until his new skilled-worker visa gets approved. (Like others I spoke with awaiting visas, he asked me to withhold his name because he fears retaliation from immigration authorities.) The State Department has said U.S. embassies and consulates around the world continue to process visas and conduct visa interviews for medical professionals, even though they have otherwise suspended routine visa services. But many foreign-national physicians abroad are struggling to get appointments. William Stock, former president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told me he had not heard of anyone actually being able to schedule an appointment before June or July. Others have not been able to reach anyone at their home embassy at all. “I have a fellow from India who’s supposedly starting on July 1,” said Ricardo Correa, a physician and program director for the endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism fellowship at the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix. “We’ve called, emailed, written, no answer.” Medical professionals are relieved to be exempted from the new executive order, but many say they’re still concerned about its ominous language suggesting further immigration restrictions may be coming. They also worry how four more years of Trump might affect an already protracted timeline for getting permanent residency. Trump somehow made a system that was already uncertain and arbitrary even more hostile. Meanwhile, even before the pandemic, other countries have taken advantage and are recruiting skilled immigrants (including those in medicine) who might be frustrated with their treatment in the United States. The Opinions section is looking for stories of how the coronavirus has affected people of all walks of life. Write to us. Among them is Kamalika Roy, an Oregon Health & Science University professor who practices in a medically underserved area. With her current visa due for an extension in June, she has been looking at jobs in Canada and Australia. She warns that other doctors may do the same in the years ahead — when the United States will continue to be in dire need of their help. “This virus, it’s not only one rodeo,” she said. “It’s going to be here this year, next year and the year after that.” She and her colleagues may not be. Sign up to receive Catherine Rampell's columns by email as soon as they're published Read more: The Post’s View: Our best health-care reinforcements are tangled up in red tape Catherine Rampell: This ‘dreamer’ is saving lives during this pandemic. She wants a chance at normal life. Laurene Powell Jobs: Terminating DACA during the pandemic would be a callous error in judgment The Post’s View: Trump’s immigration policies have already put lives at risk Max Boot: Trump can’t defeat the coronavirus. But he can wage war on immigrants. Julio Ricardo Varela: As he bungles this crisis, Trump turns to a familiar scapegoat: Immigration |