Twenty-seven-year-old Ever Arias is the dream of his immigrant parents. Set to graduate from Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine this spring, he became one of the 31,000 medical students nationally to be matched with a residency program. He’ll be training in internal medicine in Southern California, where he grew up. One day, he says, he hopes to practice in underserved communities where language barriers can prevent lifesaving medical access. But Arias is also a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient, meaning his ability to practice medicine is dependent on having a valid work permit. Without one, his dreams end:
“Without DACA, there is very little possibility that medical students will be able to fulfill their profession,” said Betzabel Estudillo, of the California Immigrant Policy Center. This is of particular concern in the medical field where there is an urgent need for a “robust and diverse workforce,” she said.
Ignacia Rodriguez, immigration policy advocate at the National Immigration Law Center, called Arias and other Dreamers “pioneers.”
“They’ve had this ambition before DACA was around and they’ll continue to work towards it even if DACA were to be taken away,” she said. “But they deserve stability.”
“The biggest fear I have is that one day everything I’ve worked for will be taken away,” Arias said. He’s one of the about 100 medical students nationally with DACA, and one of the 800,000 in limbo due to Donald Trump rescinding the program last September and his Republican Congress so far failing to pass any permanent protections in its place. While the courts have partially revived the program, the administration is appealing it, meaning that if it’s successful, Arias’s recent DACA renewal could be his last. And this doesn’t hurt only Dreamers, it’s hurts our healthcare system:
“We want programs to be able to choose from the best and brightest and to be able to select applicants who would be best suited for their institutions and communities, regardless of status,” said Atul Grover, the executive vice president at the Association of American Medical Colleges, which represents medical schools and teaching hospitals.
Residency programs take a risk with every student they admit, not just Dreamers, added Sunny Nakae, the assistant dean for admissions at Loyola’s medical school. “The threat that looms over DACA obviously adds a more foreseeable risk,” she said. But “there’s no guarantee that anybody … is going to finish.”
Other medical Dreamers, like Belsy Garcia Manrique, are dealing with horrific circumstances, like the pending deportation of their parents, as they continue getting through school. Arias also has the drive, he and hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients just need the chance. And, it’s so deeply personal: ”Members of his family didn’t have health insurance because of their legal status, so he’d like to serve populations who also struggle with limited access to coverage and care, he said. ‘I see the role I can play in my community,’ he said. ‘I don’t want that to be stripped away from me.’”
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