If they are competent. welltrained doctors. they will take them from anywhere in many of the small towns I represent. My State is not unlike many other States. But what we find here is this situation where our immigration laws are written in a way to attract doctors from those parts of the world most in need of doctors at the present time. So as Africa and Asia and other parts of the world deal with the global AIDS epidemic and terrible medical problems such as tuberculosis and malaria. the doctors who could successfully treat the people living there are lured from those lowpaying jobs in desperate circumstances. with limited medical facilities. to the very best opportunities in the United States. I thought about that as I flew back from Africa: What is the fair thing to do? We need doctors in the United States. that is for sure. but they desperately need them in the developing parts of the world. and we are luring these doctors away. We are draining away this medical talent from a part of the world that needs it the most. I am going to be offering an amendment later on to this immigration bill. and the purpose of this amendment is twofold. First. it would require health care professionals and medical and nursing students who are applying for legal permanent residency or a temporary visa to attest whether they have committed to return to their home country. I believe that is important because if someone. for example. in Congo has their surgical residencyit costs about $50.000paid for by the Government of the Congo with the understanding that they will stay and serve for a certain number of years. we should honor that contract. I think that Government has gone out of its way to provide the most basic need of every person on Earthmedical careand for the United States to step in and say: We will ignore that commitment you made to the Government that paid for your education because we want you to come to the United States I believe is wrong.
Keywords matched
visa immigration