The Hospital Hiring Numbers That Have The Trump Admin Demanding Answers

At one hospital, only two Americans were accepted for residency positions.

The Trump administration is demanding answers from a New York hospital over a viral claim that a stunning 80 of 82 residency positions went to foreign doctors on H-1B or J-1 visas, leaving just two positions for Americans.

U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General Anthony D’Esposito demanded Sunday on X that Rochester Regional Health, the parent organization of Rochester General Hospital, provide a breakdown of its residency hires. “Show us the numbers,” D’Esposito said. “How many residency slots went to H-1B and J-1 visa holders? How many American applicants got a fair shot?”

“President [Donald Trump’s] EO puts visa abuse under the microscope,” he added. “If the system is being gamed, we’ll work with [Vice President JD Vance’s] White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud to expose it.”

The Daily Wire reached out to Rochester Regional Health for comment and for a full breakdown of its residency classes. In response, Rochester Regional Health sent the following statement, effectively confirming the statistics while blaming staffing shortages for its reliance on foreign workers:

“Rochester Regional Health is proud to recruit and train highly qualified physicians who meet the rigorous standards of our accredited graduate medical education programs. Our physicians bring exceptional training, skill, and dedication to their patients every day. At a time when physician and nursing shortages are challenging healthcare systems across the country, we remain focused on building a strong healthcare workforce to ensure our patients and communities have access to the care they need.”

According to Ellis, which compiles Department of Labor disclosure data, Rochester General Hospital filed 95 H-1B Labor Condition Applications in 2025 and another 39 in 2026. Its database lists 421 H-1B filings covering 634 positions since 2016, including positions classified as “Medical Resident Physician,” “Medical Resident,” and “Medical Fellow Physician.” Ellis lists 156 “Medical Resident Physician” positions and 43 “Medical Resident” positions among RGH’s H-1B-sponsored positions, along with 39 “Medical Fellow Physician” positions.

Additionally, RGH’s Internal Medicine residency program has 72 residents, according to the American Medical Association’s FREIDA database, with 24 residents in each postgraduate year. The program lists J-1 visa sponsorship for international physicians.

The hospital’s reliance on foreign workers extends beyond doctors, too. In January, WXXI reported that roughly 150 international nurses had relocated to Rochester through Rochester Regional Health’s recruitment program, while another 80 were waiting for visas. RRH officials described international nursing recruitment as an important part of the health system’s workforce strategy. At the time, the officials complained that the pipeline was slowed by the Trump administration’s $100,000 fee for certain new H-1B petitions.

The Rochester controversy comes amid a broader national reliance on immigrant health care workers. Immigrants accounted for 17% of the U.S. health care workforce in 2024, including 28% of physicians and surgeons, according to KFF. Thousands of foreign-trained doctors enter U.S. residency programs each year.

Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt of Missouri criticized the system, writing on X that “our medical system is structurally designed to promote foreign labor and hurt Americans.” Schmitt argued that Americans are “routinely blocked from becoming doctors by our outdated residency match program, in favor of foreign grads.”

The account that first circulated the Rochester claim later posted a chart purporting to show the shockingly high percentages of foreign, compared to American, residents at various U.S. hospitals, while alleging that some foreign doctors had been connected to fake credentials and USMLE cheating scandals.

The residency system is highly competitive, and American medical graduates must secure residency positions before they can practice independently. Critics argue that hospitals should not be turning to foreign workers for positions that could go to qualified Americans, particularly when U.S. medical graduates already face intense competition for limited residency slots.

That concern is at the center of the Rochester controversy. Public records show Rochester General Hospital sponsors H-1B workers, including medical residents, while Rochester Regional Health has actively recruited international nurses.

What remains unclear is whether 80 of the hospital’s 82 residency positions actually went to H-1B or J-1 visa holders, a number that Rochester Regional Health has not yet confirmed. D’Esposito is now demanding that the hospital show exactly how many residency slots went to foreign visa holders and how many went to Americans.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-hospital-hiring-numbers-that-have-the-trump-admin-demanding-answers