Health Care

Physician shortage prompts states to embrace immigrant doctors

The proposals in blue and red states could clash with the federal immigration crackdown.
A group of resident doctors talks with a senior doctor inside Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center on Tuesday, July 1, 2025, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)

Lawmakers in at least 16 states are considering bills that would make it easier for foreign-trained doctors to get medical licenses.

It’s the latest wave of a movement that has quietly reshaped physician licensing policy across the country, even as the federal government’s immigration crackdown threatens to undermine the pipeline these laws are designed to tap.

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