Navigating Recent Changes in Immigration Laws and Policies: Practical Guidance from the Law, Bioethics, and Public Health

Abstract: Recent changes to U.S. immigration laws and policies have raised practical and ethical concerns for healthcare practitioners and their patients. These policies and executive orders (EOs), including attempts to end humanitarian parole, birthright citizenship, designation of protected healthcare centers, as well as the weaponization of public health to qualify immigrant entry at the southern border as an "invasion," are not rooted in constitutionality nor human flourishing. Further, threats of targeted raids by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) in hospitals have sowed fear among patients creating significant barriers in accessing necessary medical care. Some practitioners must navigate between their ethical duty to provide care and the surrounding legal constraints. The first panelist, an attorney-bioethicist, will detail the current legal landscape, including the constitutionality of EOs and policies impacting immigrants. The second panelist, a legal scholar and bioethicist, will discuss some litigation pursued by faith-based healthcare institutions against the EOs. The third panelist, a public health ethicist and medical educator, will describe the cascading impacts of these policies on the health of patients and their communities. The fourth panelist, a clinician, bioethicist, and medical educator, will examine moral distress and moral injury caused by these policies and will explore potential responses to support clinicians and patients through organizational ethics work. After these remarks, the panel will engage the audience on best practices for bioethics in advocating for policy change and practical protections for patients, foregrounding a compassionate and equitable approach to immigration policies prioritizing human dignity and flourishing.

Keywords: immigrant health, public health, law and policy