Executive order on immigration leaves physicians’ future uncertain

President Donald Trump’s January 27 executive order placing significant restrictions on travel and immigration to the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim countries—Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—for 90 days has hospitals and academic medical centers struggling to understand what it means for current and future physicians in training.

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) President and CEO Darrell G. Kirch, MD, issued a statement expressing concerns that the executive order will have a damaging long-term impact on patients and healthcare by disrupting physician education and research. According to the AAMC, 260 people from the seven countries affected by the executive order have applied for medical residency positions.

Residency programs participating in the National Resident Matching Program must submit their rank lists of applicants by February 22 and applicants, including graduates of foreign medical schools, will find out if they’ve matched with a program in March. Applicants from the seven countries affected by the executive order fear they may be disregarded based on their ability to enter and stay in the country.   

Though a federal judge temporality blocked part of the executive order Saturday night, at least one medical resident was denied entry into the country as she arrived at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City from Saudi Arabia. Suha Abushamma, a first-year internal medicine resident at the Cleveland Clinic, was forced to leave the country shortly before the emergency stay was granted. Although Saudi Arabia is not one of the countries listed in the executive order, Abushamma’s passport is from Sudan.

The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) said it’s working to understand the repercussions of the executive order. In a released statement, ACGME CEO Thomas J. Nasca, MD, MACP, said, “The ACGME leadership is working with the leadership of the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and other organizations to understand the specific dimensions of the policies announced, and the implications for our current residents and potential future residents.”