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TRUMP TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS BAR RESIDENTS NEEDED AT U.S. HOSPITALS  
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Roni Caryn Rabin
June 18, 2025
The New York Times
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_ Limits on travel and visa appointments have delayed or prevented
foreign doctors from entering the country for jobs set to begin in
weeks. New doctors from other countries account for one in six medical
residents at U.S. teaching hospitals. _

A hallway of Brookdale Hospital in Brooklyn, which employs
international medical graduates to help treat patients., Photo credit:
Nicole Craine for The New York Times

 

Travel and visa restrictions imposed by the Trump administration
threaten patient care at hundreds of hospitals that depend on medical
residents recruited from overseas.

Foreign medical residents often serve as the frontline caregivers at
busy safety-net hospitals in low-income communities. Normally the
residents begin work on July 1. Orientation programs for some of them
already started this week.

Now some of those hospitals are racing to prevent staffing shortages.

“If international medical graduates can’t start their medical
residencies on time on July 1, the ramifications are so far-reaching
that it is really unconscionable,” said Kimberly Pierce Burke,
executive director of the Alliance of Independent Academic Medical
Centers.

Senior residents leave hospitals in June and go on to start their
careers, she noted. Hospitals rely on new residents to replenish their
ranks. “If they don’t come on July 1, that leaves a hole in the
patient care team,” Ms. Burke said. “Who’s going to pick up the
slack?”

On May 27, the Trump administration suspended new interview
appointments for foreign nationals applying for J-1 visas. The visas,
for participants in cultural or educational exchange programs, are
used by most medical residents arriving from overseas.

On Wednesday, the State Department lifted the pause on visa
appointments, according to an official who spoke anonymously to
discuss an internal policy change. It was not immediately clear how
many, or how quickly, physicians could be granted their visas.

The process now includes “enhanced social media vetting,” intended
to ferret out potential security risks, the official said.

The administration also has banned or restricted travel
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the United States from 19 countries. The restrictions may be extended
to an additional 36 countries, including many African nations, if they
do not comply with U.S. demands regarding overstayed visas and
security concerns.

The bans and restrictions were motivated by a commitment “to
protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest
standard of national security and public safety through our visa
process,” the State Department official said.

Foreign doctors from countries covered by the bans and other
restrictions could request a “national interest exception,”
according to the State Department. It was not immediately clear how
that process would unfold.

The American medical system relies heavily on physicians from other
countries. One in five U.S. physicians was born and educated overseas,
according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

New doctors from other countries account for one in six medical
residents and specializing fellows at U.S. teaching hospitals. In
2024, the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical
Graduates sponsored more than 15,500 doctors
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countries to fill residency or fellowship training spots at 770
hospitals.

Residents are new medical school graduates who complete their training
by working for several years under the supervision of more experienced
doctors, gaining experience and acquiring the skills needed for
various specialties. They work up to 80 hours a week on average,
earning relatively low salaries.

Residents are the foot soldiers of hospitals, critical to their
operations, said Dr. Douglas DeLong, a semiretired physician in
upstate New York who has worked in academic training programs.

“If you’re a patient in a hospital, the resident is the first
doctor you see in the morning,” Dr. DeLong said.

Many foreign medical residents stay and build their careers in the
United States. Most go into primary care fields like internal
medicine, family medicine and pediatrics, areas of shortage that
American medical graduates tend to avoid.

Many of the 6,653 noncitizen doctors accepted for residency positions
in the United States this year this year had already secured visa
appointments before May 27. Those from banned countries who are
already in the country are able to remain.

 
Dr. Christos Paras, who oversees Brookdale’s residency program.
“We have residents from literally all over the world,” he said.
“I am not exaggerating — every continent.”Credit...Nicole Craine
for The New York Times
But an estimated 1,000 medical residents were not able to obtain visas
allowing them to work in the United States. The vacancies will have
disparate effects on hospitals, depending how heavily reliant they are
on foreign medical talent.

At Brookdale Hospital Medical Center in Brooklyn, people queued up for
emergency care on Monday. The lobby thrummed with visitors clutching
bouquets of roses, and patients nodded off on benches, waiting to be
seen.

Like many hospitals in underserved communities, Brookdale relies
heavily on international medical graduates who are not U.S. citizens
to staff the medical and pediatrics floors and outpatient clinics.

“It’s a wait-and-watch situation,” Dr. Christos Paras, who
oversees the residency program, said in an interview. “We just
don’t know what the impact will be.”

“We have residents from literally all over the world,” he added.
“I am not exaggerating — every continent.”

Brookdale’s internal medicine residency program relies on foreign
medical graduates to staff about 90 percent of its 55 positions. So
far, two noncitizens have been blocked from entering the country, said
Dr. Conrad Fischer, director of the program.

“If I am missing two or three people, I can go out and get the spots
filled,” Dr. Fischer added. “But next year, we’re not talking
about missing two or three — we’re talking about missing
thousands.”

If the travel restrictions are maintained, “it would gut the
program,” he said.

Some residency programs may hire second-string applicants to fill
vacancies, Dr. Paras said, an option available only to hospitals that
hire residents directly.

Those that go through the national residency match program must seek
waivers from their obligations to the matched residents in order to
replace them.

Hospitals and clinics in rural areas of the country already struggle
to recruit graduates of U.S. medical schools to their residency
programs. They rely heavily on international graduates.

New foreign doctors are not taking residency positions away from
American medical school graduates. Just the opposite: This year, there
were about 40,000 residency positions offered through the national
match system, but only 28,000 graduates of U.S. medical schools.
Foreign residents fill a crucial labor shortage.

Hospitals are not allowed to overwork residents and may lose their
accreditation as medical teaching institutions if they do. An
insufficient number of residents could also cost them Medicare funds
tied to graduate medical education.

The noncitizen international medical graduates who make it to U.S.
training programs are “well-trained, well-qualified and
motivated,” Dr. DeLong said.

“This is the new generation of physicians for Americans,” he
added. “These are the physicians who will take care of us as we age.
They are the future of medicine.”

_[RONI CARYN RABIN [[link removed]] is a
Times health reporter focused on maternal and child health, racial and
economic disparities in health care, and the influence of money on
medicine.]_

* Trump Travel Ban
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* Foreign doctors
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* Medical residents
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* hospitals
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* Travel restrictions
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* Donald Trump
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* Trump 2.0
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* international students
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* ICE
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* homeland security
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* DHS
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* Racism
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* Healthcare
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