Arizona’s migrant crackdown in hospitals enrages doctors

Medics attacked the bill as it was scheduled for a hearing by the state Senate Judiciary Committee .

Doctors fear that immigrants with contagious diseases such as tuberculosis would avoid clinics or hospitals and put themselves and the public at a grave health risk.

“This is making us into a police state that will try to catch people when they are sick,” said George Pauk, a retired doctor with an organisation called Physicians for a National Health Programme. “Do we want to stop sick people from coming in for health care?”

Arizona’s legislature is the first to take up such a measure amid a national push in conservative states to crack down on illegal immigration. The proposed law would require hospitals, when admitting non-emergency cases, to confirm that a person seeking care was a US citizen or in the country legally.