Doctors from countries with a travel ban will not have to leave the United States as Trump eases the rules.
The Donald Trump administration has silently rolled back its travel ban on some 39 countries and secretly allowed doctors from those countries to work and remain in the United States. The New York Times reported that US Citizenship and Immigration Services updated its website late last week, without any official announcement, that doctors were no longer subject to suspension of treatment.
“Requests associated with physicians will continue to be processed,” the Department of Homeland Security told the New York Times.With the administration announcing a travel ban on 39 countries, all immigration work for applicants from those countries has been temporarily halted. This included all types of visas, work permits, green cards, etc. Doctors who were already working in the United States were placed on administrative leave by the hospitals when they were audited.Since this was gradually leading to a health care crisis in the US where foreign doctors make up 25% of all doctors working in the US, the administration lifted the ban not only for doctors – but those already in the US. Doctors from Africa, the Middle East and Venezuela were among those laid off from their jobs.The travel ban has affected current foreign doctors in more ways than one as well. For example, federal agents arrested Ezequiel Velez, a family doctor from Venezuela, on April 6 at a checkpoint in Texas.
He lost his legal status as his visa renewal was not processed due to the travel ban. He was released after 10 days.On April 8, several physician associations, including the American Academies of Family Physicians, Neurology, and Pediatrics, signed a letter to the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security expressing “urgent concern” about barriers preventing “qualified vetted physicians” from entering and remaining in the United States, and calling for a national interest waiver of the policy as well as the rapid processing of their cases.“Affected doctors have not yet been notified of any changes to the visa process, but we are hoping to see this updated,” said Sebastian Arwarana, founder of the IMG Project, an organization that represents thousands of international medical graduates in the United States.Can doctors from these travel ban countries come to the United States from abroad?According to experts, this is not intended for doctors who come from these countries but are not in the US now. This is also not for residents coming outside the US where the foreign travel ban remains in place. Experts explained that this is only intended for doctors who are already in the United States.