A viral post accused New York’s Rochester General Hospital of hiring a maximum of foreign doctors instead of Americans amid the ongoing H-1B controversy. The post to which the hospital has not yet commented, claimed that the hospital has 82 resident doctors and that, among them, only two are Americans — 80 are foreign workers on either H-1B or J-1 visas. “98% of the residency slots went to visa workers- mostly from countries with documented USMLE cheating. Americans got 2 jobs,” the post claimed.While such anti-H-1B allegations are abundant on social media, Department of Labor inspector general Anthony D’Esposito commented on this post and asked the hospital if the allegation was right.“@ROCRegional: Show us the numbers. How many residency slots went to H‑1B and J‑1 visa holders? How many American applicants got a fair shot? @POTUS’ EO puts visa abuse under the microscope. If the system is being gamed, we’ll work with @VP’s @WHFraudTF to expose it,” D’Esposito said.H-1B visa program is meant for hiring skilled foreign workers. J-1 visa is a temporary, non-immigrant visa for approved work or study exchange programs.
‘What is the problem if foreign workers are doctors’
Social media users reacted to D’Esposito’s warning and wondered what the problem was if foreign workers are as high skilled as doctors.“I hope you all do realize that you have more residency spot than American graduates, so foreigners often come in and take a spot that would be empty otherwise? This is internal medicine. They’re not taking Americans spots, they’re taking spots that are left over and without them you’ll just have a doctor left. There is ZERO benefit for a hospital to pick a foreign medical graduate over an American one. If anything it adds cost as they have to pay for the whole visa process,” one doctor commented.The social media account that made the allegation against the hospital claimed that American doctors “are forced” to leave after foreign workers flooded the department. It cited a Reddit post that said: ” No physician I knew liked it here towards the end, everyone was looking a way out. As we started getting more and more visa-waiver people, dept started caring about us less, as there is a good supply of new physicians. Our retention rate is terrible”