In the opinion piece, Michael Collins, MD, the senior vice president for health sciences at the University of Massachusetts in Worcester, expresses concern regarding President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting immigration.
“My colleagues and I keenly appreciate the need to safeguard the United States against terrorists, but the broad-brush approach of the immigration ban — and the uncertainty around it — is casting a pall over the hopes and opportunities of many deserving physicians and scientists,” wrote Dr. Collins.
The physician goes on to cite the case of Suha Abushamma, MD, a first-year internal medical resident at the Cleveland Clinic and a citizen of Sudan, one of the seven Muslim-majority nations affected by the executive order. Dr. Abushamma, a visa holder, was deported after trying to return to the U.S. after visiting family in Saudi Arabia.
While the executive order was blocked by a Seattle judge on Feb. 3, the final ruling on its constitutional legitimacy is yet to be filed. Mr. Trump called the ruling “outrageous.”
“It seems a cruel injustice for these medical school graduates, who have earned a chance to participate in the finest residencies in the world, to have their professional aspirations and their American dreams crushed due to uncertainty surrounding their immigration status,” wrote Dr. Collins. “Time is of the essence. The president’s executive order must not be allowed to cause irreparable harm to our nation’s healthcare system. Medicine is based on the principle ‘Primum non nocere‘ — ‘first, do no harm.’ The president’s executive order should have the same foundation.”
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