Immigration policy could deepen US clinician shortages

Clinical takeaway: The communities most exposed are those already short of clinicians; losing this pipeline would widen access gaps in those areas.

A complete US immigration ban covering 19 countries took effect last December. Unlike earlier travel bans or visa changes, it closes every immigration pathway at once. This analysis examined what that might mean for the health care workforce by tracing how many physicians and nurses the US has drawn from those countries and where they practice.

The clinicians most affected are concentrated in the communities that can least absorb a loss. Counties with at least one physician from a banned country were more than twice as likely to be federally designated primary care shortage areas, and they had larger Hispanic and Black populations and lower educational attainment. The pattern held for nurses.

Where these clinicians work, they often carry a disproportionate share of the load: in counties with any banned-country nurse, more than 14% of all nurses came from those countries though for physicians the comparable share was small at under 2%.

In absolute terms, the affected countries have become a steady source of US clinicians. By 2023, they accounted for about 24,000 practicing physicians and 56,000 nurses, roughly 2% of the physician workforce and 1.4% of nurses. Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba sent the most physicians over the study period; Cuba, Haiti, and Iran the most nurses.

The inflow of clinicians from these countries has been rising, not shrinking. Annual physician arrivals from these countries grew from 350 in 2010 to 459 in 2023, and nurse arrivals nearly doubled to 368.

"Given the current administration's stance on immigration, a reduced number of clinicians from banned countries is unlikely to be offset by increases from elsewhere, potentially undermining health care access," the authors conclude.

Source: Ramesh T, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2026 May 30. Immigration Ban and the US Health Care Workforce