[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 3, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2685-S2686]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Immigrant Healthcare Heroes

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, Americans owe a great debt of gratitude to 
the healthcare heroes on the frontlines of the fight against the COVID-
19 virus.
  Today I would like to spend a minute talking about one special group 
of those healthcare workers: immigrants.
  Consider this: One out of every six healthcare and social service 
workers in America is an immigrant--3 million out of 18 million 
immigrants. They are playing a critical role in the battle against the 
pandemic. Yet our broken immigration laws do not allow many of them to 
fulfill their dreams of actually becoming Americans.
  I have come to the floor today to tell the story of one of our 
immigrant healthcare heroes. I will continue to highlight these stories 
in the coming weeks. There has been so much negative publicity about 
immigrants. Yet, when you follow what is happening in hospitals across 
America--large and small, rural and urban--and so many times you ask 
``Doctor, where were you born?'' you find they weren't born in the 
United States, but they came here to practice medicine, and now their 
work is saving lives every day.
  I invite my colleagues and others to share stories from their own 
communities and their own States and to use the social media hashtag 
``Immigrant Health Heroes.''
  Thousands of immigrant health workers are suffering because of a 
serious problem in our immigration system. It is called the green card 
backlog. If you are not in immigrant status, you may not know anything 
about it, but trust me, they do.
  This backlog puts them and their families at risk of losing their 
immigration status, and it hinders their ability to join in the fight 
against COVID-19. Under current law, there are not nearly enough 
immigrant visas--also known as green cards--available each year. As a 
result, many immigrants in the United States are stuck

[[Page S2686]]

in crippling backlogs, not just for years but for decades. Close to 5 
million future Americans--close to 5 million--are in line waiting for 
green cards. Hundreds of thousands are working in the United States on 
a temporary visa while many more are waiting abroad, separated from 
their American families.
  Only 226,000 family green cards and 140,000 employment green cards 
are available each year. The backlogs are a real hardship on these 
families caught in immigration limbo. For example, children in many of 
these families age out and face deportation. While their parents are 
waiting for the green card, the child reaches the age where they are 
deported, at age 21.
  The green card backlog includes thousands of doctors currently 
working in the United States on temporary visas. These doctors face 
many restrictions due to their temporary status, such as not being able 
to take shifts at hospitals in COVID-19 hotspots where they may be 
desperately needed.
  The solution to the green card backlog is very clear: Increase the 
number of green cards.
  In 2013, I joined a group of four Republicans and four Democrats who 
authored bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform legislation. Our 
bill, which passed the Senate on a strong bipartisan 68-to-32 vote, 
would have eliminated this green card backlog.
  Last year I introduced the RELIEF Act, legislation based on the 2013 
comprehensive immigration reform bill, which would clear the backlogs 
for all immigrants waiting in line for green cards within 5 years. I 
will keep fighting to help these immigrants here in the United States 
who simply want a chance to continue to serve this Nation.
  Last month I joined with my colleagues--Senators Perdue of Georgia, 
Young of Indiana, Cornyn of Texas, Coons of Delaware, and Leahy of 
Vermont--to introduce legislation to quickly address the plight of 
immigrant doctors and nurses stuck in this green card backlog.
  This backlog poses a significant risk to our ability to effectively 
respond to this pandemic. Our bill, the Healthcare Workforce Resilience 
Act, is a temporary stopgap effort that will strengthen our healthcare 
workforce and improve healthcare for Americans in the midst of this 
national emergency.
  Our bill would reallocate 25,000 unused immigrant visas for nurses 
and 15,000 unused immigrant visas for doctors. These are visas that 
Congress has previously authorized but were not used.
  It is important to note that our bill requires employers to attest to 
a very important fact. They have to attest that immigrants from 
overseas who receive these visas will not displace an American worker. 
We want to ensure that the beneficiaries of this bill help build our 
workforce but not at the expense of those already here in the United 
States.
  Our bill now has 13 Republican and 13 Democratic cosponsors and broad 
support from the medical community. As Congress works on the next 
legislation to address the COVID-19 pandemic, I am going to join my 
Republican colleagues and push for the Healthcare Workforce Resilience 
Act to be included.
  Today, let me tell you the story of one immigrant healthcare worker 
stuck in this green card backlog waiting indefinitely, for years, and 
he would benefit from the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act: Dr. 
Parth Mehta, born in India.
  As a child, he was inspired to pursue a career in medicine by his 
grandfather, who worked as an assistant to a physician, and by his 
older sister, who is a surgeon.
  Dr. Mehta came to the United States in the year 2004. He has been 
here 16 years. He obtained a master's in public health at Saint Xavier 
University in the city of Chicago. He then completed his residency in 
internal medicine at St. Joseph's Hospital in Chicago.
  In 2010, 10 years ago, Dr. Mehta began working as a hospitalist at 
UnityPoint Health Methodist Medical Center in downstate Peoria, IL.
  He sent me a letter, and here is what he says about being a doctor:

       I feel that it is a great privilege to help people, 
     comforting them, healing them, and making them better when 
     they are most vulnerable.

  Dr. Mehta lives in Peoria with his wife and his 10-year-old son and 
4-year-old daughter, and he writes, in addition:

       We have called Peoria home for 10 years now and we love our 
     community here. We have bought a home here, built a career 
     here, and we plan to stay in this community as long as we 
     can.

  Now Dr. Mehta is on the frontlines of the pandemic, treating COVID-19 
patients. He was also selected as the principal investigator for a 
COVID-19 trial for which the hospital has applied, but unfortunately, 
Dr. Mehta is one of thousands of doctors who are stuck in this green 
card backlog. He has been on a temporary work visa for 13 years. He has 
been forced to renew his visa four times since he became a doctor. His 
green card petition was filed in 2011, but he will have to wait years 
and years and years before he receives a green card.
  In the midst of this pandemic, Dr. Mehta's immigration status puts 
him at great risk. If, God forbid, he contracts COVID-19 and becomes 
disabled or dies, his family would immediately lose their immigration 
status and be forced to leave the United States.
  Dr. Mehta has written goodbye letters to his wife and kids and 
prepared an emergency binder with all the necessary information for his 
family if he dies. To keep his family safe, Dr. Mehta has isolated 
himself by living in the basement of his home. He is especially worried 
about his wife, who has asthma. In March, she was diagnosed with 
pneumonia and was hospitalized for 10 days, including a stay in the 
intensive care unit.
  Here is what Dr. Mehta wrote to me about this:

       Seeing COVID patients, treating them, taking care of them, 
     and saving their lives is part of my job, and I will never 
     shy away from doing my job. But how is it fair that my family 
     gets no protection if I die doing my job?

  Dr. Mehta's story makes it clear why Congress needs to pass the 
Healthcare and Workforce Resilience Act. Under our bill, Dr. Mehta and 
thousands of others like him could receive their green cards. They and 
their families would get the permanent immigration status they deserve 
and be able to use their skills to serve on the frontlines of the 
pandemic, where they are needed most.
  Don't put a sign in the window saying that you love healthcare 
workers, don't come out at 7 at night and beat on a pan to show that 
you care for healthcare workers and ignore the reality that this man in 
Peoria, IL, is risking his life every day to treat those patients, and 
we have written a law that says you are basically not welcome in the 
United States.
  How can we say this to him, to thousands just like him, doctors and 
nurses who are really caring for the people we love and risking their 
own lives in the process?
  It would be great, in these times of political division, if we could 
come together in this Congress to quickly aid these immigrant 
healthcare heroes.
  The bill that I have introduced with Senator Perdue, Senator Young, 
and others is a step toward reality, toward realizing that people just 
like these make us a better nation and a stronger nation.
  Dr. Mehta and his family, with all their fears, should know that 
there are many here in Congress, particularly here in the Senate, who 
want to move as quickly as possible and make sure that their lives are 
better because they have done so much to make the lives of others 
better.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Utah is recognized.

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