Amid the intense anti-H-1B sentiment in the US, Republican senator Greg Murphy was trolled on X after he said H-1B visas are critical to address the physician shortage in the country. He said rural communities can’t find US doctors, and foreign medical graduates are the only ones who treat those patients. “H1-B Visas are critical for helping alleviate the severe physician shortage this nation faces. We cannot train enough American Doctors fast enough. We can’t let lack of knowledge of the importance of this program to affect patient care,” the Republican leader who is also a physician said. A urologist, Murphy has a long medical career and he spent a summer in India when he was 20 years old working in a Catholic leprosy hospital. He also performed medical missionary work in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake. The senator was called ‘out of touch’ and ‘compromised by foreign lobby’ as the prevailing mood is against the H-1B visa programs, with Republicans demanding an end to these programs claiming that American graduates are being displaced.“False – H1-B physicians are a tool for profit-maximizing used by corporate health systems and private equity controlled medical groups. They like to hire foreign medical graduates because they tend not to complain about gross ethical problems, malpractice and understaffing,” one wrote. “We don’t need any foreign physicians!!! What we need are mass deportations and visa reform!!! Also, DEI has been a disaster for medical schools. They’ve been discriminating against White students for years. No more foreigners!!!!” another wrote.“You’re completely out of touch and clearly compromised by a foreign lobby. No one who understands this issue deeply agrees with you. Fix the system at home. Don’t bring down American wages,” a third user wrote. “That is such a blatant lie. In reality we just have H1b frauds with questionable backgrounds destroying the future of qualified Americans. Shame on you,” one comment read. “Actually, H-1Bs are not critical for the medical system. We have American medical students who are denied residency programs because the medical establishment limits them. Even after going $10s of thousands in debt and passing all their classes, these Americans are denied residency programs, while foreign students are admitted. That’s just wrong,” another wrote. While the present hostility towards H-1B is mostly in the tech fields, as Silicon Valley hires a huge number of H-1Bs, foreigners working in US medical fields have also recently come under fire.
