The president of the Association of American Medical Colleges writes that “a key tenet of medicine is to do no harm”—and the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program “falls well short of this ethical imperative.”
Dr. David Skorton, a cardiologist, writes in The Washington Post that it’s not just beneficiaries and their families who stand to be affected by the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on the Trump administration’s termination of the program: “In fact, research indicates that the physicians and trainees who stand to lose their eligibility if DACA is eliminated would, collectively, serve as many as 5.1 million patients over the course of their careers.”
Among these medical students are Denisse Rojas and Jirayut “New” Latthivongskorn—one of the DACA recipients who sued over the program’s termination—and they say the program has been key to their education and career goals. “It has really opened up so many doors,” Rojas told the Association of American Medical Colleges in 2017. “My mom immigrated to the United States without a high school education, but she earned her GED and enrolled in nursing school. She’s a source of light and inspiration to me. If my mom can do this, I can absolutely do this as well.”
Skorton writes that there are thousands of young immigrants who are in the same position as Rojas and Latthivongskorn across the U.S. “Today there are approximately 27,000 doctors, nurses, dentists, physician assistants and other health-care workers whose DACA status allows them to work and contribute to patient care. The program also is enabling nearly 200 current medical students and medical residents to pursue careers in medicine.”
He notes that the administration is also seeking to deport these young immigrants while at the same time the U.S. will be facing a massive shortage of doctors by 2032. “Every single U.S.-educated and -credentialed health professional—DACA or otherwise—is a precious asset to our country,” he continues. “Worse, this physician deficit will be concentrated most heavily in communities with the greatest need, including rural areas and low-income neighborhoods. As a result, some of our nation’s most vulnerable patients will be hardest hit.”
Of course, undocumented immigrants deserve protections not because of what they can contribute to the U.S., but because they’re human beings and families deserving of dignity and respect. With DACA, “I could finally breathe a sigh of relief,” fourth-year University of New Mexico School of Medicine student Yazmin Irazoqui Ruiz told Congress earlier this year. But now, “Here we are, facing that being taken away.”