America and the world have watched video after video of federal immigration agents conducting raids and making arrests in Minneapolis — scenes that show agents dragging people from cars in broad daylight, an American mother and an ICU nurse fatally shot during enforcement operations, and neighbors confronting officers in neighborhoods where children play and families live.
The fear that accompanies patients who need to see a health care provider isn’t exclusive to undocumented immigrants. Legal immigrants and even U.S. citizens in mixed-status families are canceling or skipping appointments because they worry about what might happen en route or once they arrive.
One of us, a physician, has seen this situation before. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when people delayed routine care, the country saw the consequences in delayed cancer diagnoses, poorly managed chronic conditions, and preventable complications that only appeared when patients were much sicker and harder to treat.
That pattern is not only expensive but also dangerous. When people avoid the health system, they don’t just delay checkups; they miss vaccinations, postpone treatment for infectious diseases, and stay untreated for conditions that can spread to others. Measles, tuberculosis and other communicable diseases don’t consider immigration status.
The health of the community depends on people feeling safe enough to seek care early, rather than waiting until their illness becomes an emergency. A climate of fear undermines that essential function of a health system and puts all Americans at risk, not just the individuals who are afraid to seek help.
There is also a longer-term consequence that gets much less attention: Immigration policy influences the health care workforce itself. Minnesota, like much of the country, depends heavily on immigrants for nurses, nursing assistants, technicians and essential non-clinical staff. Immigrants make up, for instance, one in four physicians in Minnesota and an even higher percentage nationwide.
Policies that cut legal immigration or make talented, law-abiding workers feel unwelcome worsen staffing shortages, increase burnout and reduce access to care for everyone. The Trump administration has already suspended immigrant visas for nearly half of all legal immigrants who are abroad, and immigration processing has been suspended for immigrants from about 40 countries inside the United States, including for physicians.
Immigrants who completed years of training in the United States are suddenly being stopped from obtaining green cards, H‑1B visas, and other forms of legal status in the solely because of where they were born. One physician who spoke with PBS News about the issue said, “You lose out on the time you could have used to treat patients.” When fewer patients feel safe seeking care and fewer workers are available to provide it, the result is a quiet but deep erosion of the health system — one that ultimately harms all Americans.
Doctors are trained to consider not only intentions but also consequences. A health care system needs two things: patients who feel safe to seek care and caregivers who are present and capable of providing it. We are damaging both. Viral videos and national debates over enforcement tactics — from agents conducting raids to controversial shootings and aggressive operations that have left communities reeling in Minneapolis and beyond — have created an environment where even patients who are lawful residents and health care workers are afraid to engage with the system.
Policies that push patients into the shadows and discourage caregivers from being at the bedside are not just abstract political choices. In health care terms, they are preventable failures of public health that make Minnesota — and beyond —s icker, less prepared and less safe.
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