BUT OF COURSE: U.S. medical schools urged to increase enrollment of illegal immigrants. “The authors . . . suggest that these students, who are often highly motivated and qualified, can help alleviate the nationwide shortage of primary care physicians, particularly in underserved, low-income areas.”

It is, of course, framed as a matter of jobs Americans won’t do (we have a “shortage”!). And, of course, we’re talking about “qualified” applicants, not just any ol’ immigrants. So, rest easy, America.

But as Mark Perry points out, “acceptance rates at US medical schools in 2013 reveal racial profiling and affirmative discrimination for blacks, Hispanics.” Medical schools are already uninterested in accepting only qualified applicants. Widening the pool of applicants to include (mostly-Hispanic) illegal immigrants just means more discrimination against actually-qualified whites and Asians.

And these schools are encouraged by law to discriminate in this way. See, for example, the following provisions of Obamacare:

It directs the secretary of health and human services to award federal grants worth billions of dollars to educational institutions that train medical-service providers. However, “priority” for federal dollars is to be given only to those institutions offering “preferential” admissions to underrepresented minorities (according to race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, and religion, depending on which section of the bill you look at). Thus, schools will be unable to compete for essential federal funding unless they adopt admission policies that intentionally and deliberately discriminate. It guarantees the institution of racist and sexist quotas sanctioned and encouraged by the federal government . . .

The bill also declares that institutions training social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, behavioral pediatricians, psychiatric nurses, and counselors will be ineligible for federal grants unless they discriminate. According to Section 756, these programs must enroll “individuals and groups from different racial, ethnic, cultural, geographic, religious, linguistic, and class backgrounds, and different genders and sexual orientations” and demonstrate “knowledge and understanding of the concerns of the[se] individuals and groups.” If the schools fail to abide by these requirements, they will be liable for “liquidated damages.” [See 42 USC §294e–1 (b) 1, 2, and 5.]

The Senate bill even creates a federally funded and administered medical school called the United States Public Health Services Track to “grant appropriate advanced degrees.” Priority in admissions is to be given to “students from rural communities and underrepresented minorities.” (“Underrepresented minorities” is liberal code for “Asians need not apply.”) [See 42 USC CHAPTER 6A, SUBCHAPTER I, Part D, §239/ (a) 1 and §239/-2 (a) 2.]

The proposal to extend medical school enrollment to illegal aliens is less a remedy for a supposed lack of qualified applicants and more a remedy for a felt lack of minority (i.e., Hispanic) applicants.

Keep in mind also that Obamacare pushes matching the race of doctor and patient. And once you permit an influx of illegal Hispanic immigrants and offer them free health care, such matching requires more illegal Hispanic health care providers. As for non-Hispanic citizens? They can get bent.