A top Senate lawmaker and medical doctor on Tuesday ripped New York’s new plan to let illegal immigrants become certified doctors and pharmacists, warning that it could lead to greater abuse of opioid prescriptions.
“I think it’s a terrible idea to grant licenses to illegal immigrants because doctors, dentists, others are entrusted to prescribe powerful medicines, and that’s the point of the bill we’re on right now,” said Wyoming Republican Sen. John Barrasso during floor debate on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2016.
“These include these very opioid painkillers that we’ve been talking about the past few weeks,” he added.
New York late last month agreed to give certifications to 53 professional positions, including teachers, doctors and pharmacists, to illegal citizens who arrived in the U.S. with their parents and have been protected under President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy.
“We shouldn’t close the door on their dreams,” said New York Education Commissioner MaryEllen Elia in a release describing the new initiative.
The senator called it “very dangerous.”
Barrasso also warned of the dangers giving those here illegally job credibility.
“Why is the state of New York so eager to allow these drugs to be prescribed and dispensed by people who we know have already broken the law?” asked Barrasso, who offered an amendment requiring that the Drug Enforcement Agency allow only legal Americans to prescribe drugs.
He added:
It would set a terrible precedent if we allow people who are in this country illegally to prescribe these highly addictive drugs, but that’s what New York wants to do.
We cannot allow someone who has broken the law to serve as the gatekeeper for those potentially dangerous medications.
We owe every American the peace of mind that the doctor treating their sick child is who that doctor claims to be – and that their doctor is in the country legally.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
