Illegal immigrant nurses can now be licensed in California

MatrixRn · May 12, 2015

Interesting.

From reading the article this rule will not only apply to nursing, but other licensed professionals. So plumbers, electricians, MDs, RTs, PTs etc.

I would imagine the various boards would assure that these folks have the proper schooling etc and thus will lead to a larger pool of potential applicants for jobs. This will be quite a boon for the businesses. I say this because I know the facility I work at is always looking for people who speak different languages - Spanish and Vietnamese the two largest sought out.

elkpark · May 12, 2015

Yes -- looks like it passed and Gov. Brown signed it into law in September 2014. How appalling.

DoGoodThenGo · May 13, 2015

I swear between New York and California the United States will all turn into Detroit within a few more generations.

This dog of a bill was proposed and made law in California as part of the larger Democratic agenda to bypass Congress on immigration reform.

It began when an illegal immigrant who attended law school in CA sued that state because then laws required him to be a legal resident or citizen to be admitted to the bar. The rest you can read here: Immigrants without legal status able to apply for professional licenses in CA | 89.3 KPCC

MrChicagoRN, RN · May 13, 2015

It really won't make much difference one way or the other.

Even if a nurse did have a California license, she would be extremely limited occupationally. Federal law requires,In order to secure employment, that the applicant provides documented proof that he/she is legally authorized to work in the U.S.

and as this is federal, the state can't over rule this.

caliotter3 · May 13, 2015

It really won't make much difference one way or the other.
Even if a nurse did have a California license, she would be extremely limited occupationally. Federal law requires,In order to secure employment, that the applicant provides documented proof that he/she is legally authorized to work in the U.S.
and as this is federal, the state can't over rule this.

But what federal law requires, and what employers do, can be two different things. Perhaps not so much with the big employers, but the smaller, "colloquial" employers, will hire just the kind of employee that suits their purpose.

imintrouble, BSN, RN · May 13, 2015

Illegal immigrants have been working in the US forever. So far they've only been "allowed" to work in lower paid jobs.

Licensed professionals need to be afraid. It might only be in CA now, but that's how societal changes occur.

I wonder why we haven't heard any outrage from the ANA.

esipbisn · May 13, 2015

It began when an illegal immigrant who attended law school in CA sued that state because then laws required him to be a legal resident or citizen to be admitted to the bar.

Was it (THAT) unreasonable??

elkpark · May 14, 2015

It really won't make much difference one way or the other.
Even if a nurse did have a California license, she would be extremely limited occupationally. Federal law requires,In order to secure employment, that the applicant provides documented proof that he/she is legally authorized to work in the U.S.
and as this is federal, the state can't over rule this.

Yes, there is still that -- a license and a job are two different things.

steppybay · May 14, 2015

With regards to the higher percentage of nurses coming from the Philippines, there's been very little that have been able to either apply for the initial licensure or from the endorsement process since November 2011.

This is not a brand new rule by the CA BRN but rather from one established since 1987 under the concurrency regulations and was simply being enforced as of the Nov. 2011 date till present.

The strict enforcement has forced many applicants to require that they re-take certain deficient courses or re-take the entire nursing program. The offering of the deficient courses being conducted by the various CA schools must still met with the CA BRN requirements and should be taken from the CA BRN approved list of schools.

These schools are very limited with many costing up to $14,000 for a few months and spaces for them are so limited, the waiting list can range from 2-3-4 years. However, the CA BRN has a 3 year completion deadline from the initial application date to submit the deficient courses (usually MS-OB courses and clinicals) and can be extended into 2 other classes or more, but if not provided with the certificate or transcripts showing the courses were completed, the application will be considered "abandoned" with no refund of the application fees.

Here's a brief outline of the situation in this other link:

https://allnurses.com/nurse-registration/position-statement-concurrency-901106.html

The other option for most declined Phils applicant is to apply for the LVN license, then apply for the LVN-RN program, but that's not easy either due to the current situation of just regular and local students already enrolled or getting enrolled.

Many try to get an RN license from out of state, then try to apply under the endorsement process, only to find that door is closed also since the CA BRN will require the same set of educational requirements that was rejected in the first place.

This concurrency issue applies and affects those from the Phils from their graduation year of 2004-2005 to present.

For further information on this and other issues, if you glance over the World forum under the Nurse Registration tab, you'll find the many postings of the plight and frustrations of trying to just get licensed in CA, regardless of SB 1159.

Anna S, RN · May 14, 2015

Ridiculous and infuriating.

When was in Texas, illegals got in-state tuition.

As a U.S. citizen from another state, I had to pay out-of-state tuition.

Also, I needed a humanities credit, so planned to take a Spanish class for that.

My adviser informed me that Spanish only counts as a humanities class for native-Spanish speakers. If English is your first, or only language, Spanish classes count as a language class, not a humanities.

WookieeRN, BSN, MSN, RN · May 14, 2015

The SSN doesn't seem to be the issue for many immigrants trying to get their RN license in CA, so I don't think this will matter much in the scheme of things. It will still be difficult to find a job for nurses in CA regardless.