Louisville Medicine Volume 64, Issue 10 | Page 29

SPEAK YOUR MIND If you would like to respond to an article in this issue , please submit an article or letter to the editor . Contributions may be sent to editor @ glms . org or may be submitted online at www . glms . org . The GLMS Editorial Board reserves the right to choose what will be published . Please note that the views expressed in Doctors ’ Lounge or any other article in this publication are not those of the Greater Louisville Medical Society or Louisville Medicine .

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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