Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary under the Trump administration, is facing strong backlash from medical professionals after refusing to directly answer whether emergency rooms should check immigration status before treating dying patients. Leavitt, asked on October 2, 2025, whether ER staff should verify immigration status for someone in need of life-saving treatment, declined to give a straight answer. She said instead that the question was for healthcare and legal experts to decide. Under current U.S. law, specifically the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), hospitals that receive federal funds must provide emergency care to anyone who needs it, regardless of their ability to pay or their immigration status. Many doctors and public health experts have responded sharply, calling Leavitt’s avoidance not only disingenuous but morally indefensible. CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner said that requiring immigration status verification for dying patients would be “grossly immoral,” and asserted that no ethical physician would comply with such a policy.ER physician Dr. Craig Spencer also weighed in, saying the priority must always be preserving life in emergency situations—not policing status.
Critics argue that Leavitt’s failure to answer reflects a broader political tension over immigration, healthcare access, and what role — if any — legal status should play in determining who receives emergency treatment. Many see her deflection as avoiding responsibility on what many believe is a clear ethical imperative.
As this debate unfolds, medical professionals emphasize that medical ethics, law, and human rights demand that life-saving care not be contingent on legal status. The controversy raises critical questions about policy, morality, and how public officials speak to fundamental issues of health and humanity in times of crisis.
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