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BIGOTRY KILLS
Mary G. Barry, MD
Louisville Medicine Editor editor @ glms. org
NOTE: Due to the intensity of the current political environment, we remind readers that this section( Doctors ' Lounge) is reserved for unadulterated opinion. The following articles are not the opinion of GLMS. Its important for members to have open, insightful dialogue and debate on issues far and wide. If you are stirred by any article, whether in agreement or disagreement, please respond with a letter to the editor.
President Trump’ s stupendously unjust and spitefully bigoted executive order against those who are Muslim was rightfully and swiftly overturned by our legal guardians of the U. S. Constitution: lawyers who spontaneously rushed to airports, the ACLU and the judges who heard the case. Millions of Americans( including myself, friends, family and partners) had immediately and loudly turned out to protest the ban’ s intent and execution. Still caught up in its dragnet of prejudice are thousands of immigrant physicians, who( unlike those of us born in America) actually serve the people of this country who live out in the sticks. These doctors are afraid to leave their stateside homes, not trusting what Customs officers will do with them and their passports from moment to moment. They are afraid to keep bringing over family members who would uproot their lives, but might be deported after they’ ve made new ones here. They are angry and ever more uneasy at the newly unleashed threats of white supremacists, who have said that this election validated their beliefs and encouraged their violence.
This week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided hundreds of places and detained people deemed non-citizens who may merely be“ suspected of committing criminal acts or being dishonest with immigration officials.” Under Mr. Trump’ s“ Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States” executive order, that is now legal.
There are so many things morally wrong with this order I can barely list them.“ Non citizens” include green card holders, or permanent residents of this country, who legally can live here and work in any occupation and pay taxes, and must, if they are a man of the right age, register with the Selective Service for the draft. Yet they could be denounced by any rival, by any bigoted American, on the basis of hearsay, without any proof, without any due process, without any representation,“ of suspicion of criminal act,” and then rounded up- at this point not into a cattle car- and jailed. Many, many permanent U. S. residents have died or been maimed in their military service to this country, and thousands continue to serve. They live and work next to us in the hospital, in the laboratory, in the university, in our offices, and in untold other community jobs. They are our colleagues, our consultants, our scientists, our patients and our friends. Their futures here, and their families here, could suddenly and viciously be stolen from them.
Imagine the Stasi coming for you: since January 25th, that is what it’ s like for immigrants to this country. Janell Ross et al reported in the Washington Post that people have been arrested as they reported to parole or probation officers, but that rumors of
“ widespread random raids” were unfounded and denied by federal officials. Yet apartment complexes in DC were staked out by enforcement officers and arrests made in largely Hispanic neighborhoods, which only fueled the fears. Ms. Ross et al quoted Angelica Salas of the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles:“ Donald Trump has effectively created a way to deport individuals who have been accused, charged or convicted of anything from murder to jaywalking.”
According to Parija Kavilanz, in a story from CNN Money on February 10, over 6,000 foreign medical school graduates( FMGs) join U. S. residency programs every year under a H-1 visa program. Per the American Association of Medical Colleges, at least a thousand currently have come from the seven countries banned under the original executive order. Over the past decade or so, 15,000 residency and fellowship graduates have obtained the“ Conrad 30” visa waiver, to work here in the U. S. another three years in an underserved medical area, without being forced to return home for two years after training. Each state determines its own application of the visa waiver rules. In Kentucky, all the primary care specialties are allowed, as well as OB / GYN and Psychiatry, if the population-to-doctor ratio exceeds 2,000 / 1. Subspecialty waivers are
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