From rags to riches

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

"The American Dream: Dr. Quiñones' Incredible Journey

Leading Doctor at Johns Hopkins Started Out as An Illegal Immigrant

By ERICA BAUMGART

June 26, 2008

Today, Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa may be living the American dream.

As one of the nation's leading brain surgeons, he has built an exceptional career at Baltimore's legendary Johns Hopkins Hospital, surgically treating patients with brain tumors and leading cutting-edge research into cures for brain cancer. And he is one of the doctors featured on the new ABC series "Hopkins."

But his journey to the top of the medical profession didn't start out as many might expect. More than 20 years ago, Quiñones-Hinojosa, known to his colleagues now as Dr. Q, was a teenager with few prospects living in Mexicali, Mexico.

Watch the series premiere of "Hopkins" Thursday, June 26, at 10 p.m. ET. CLICK HERE for behind the scenes videos, doctor profiles and patient updates.

Although he always had a strong work ethic, Quiñones-Hinojosa -- who manned the pumps at his father's gas station -- seemed destined for a life of menial labor at low-paying jobs in his hometown. For Quiñones-Hinojosa, growing up was difficult.

"At the age of five I started working in a gas station," he said. "It's hard to believe. ... We didn't have enough money to eat, and everybody had to pitch in."

From Rags to Riches

But Quiñones-Hinojosa knew early on that somehow he was meant for bigger things than the dusty backstreets of Mexicali.

"By the time I was 19, I decided I wanted to go to the U.S. and explore," Quiñones-Hinojosa said. "I was tired of the political oppression and the bifurcation of classes, the oppression of the poor that happens in my country."

Desperate for money, and with his sights set on a brighter future, he scaled a barbed border fence across from Calexico, Calif.

"It was a pretty scary experience," Quiñones-Hinojosa remembered. "It was filled with a real adrenaline rush excitement, but also fear, and, you know, fear gives you extra strength and courage. I got caught and sent back, but I did it again the same night."

He worked illegally for more than a year doing backbreaking work in California's fields, mostly picking tomatoes. Like other migrant workers, he sent his hard-earned cash back to his family in Mexico.

Derided by his fellow workers as a dreamer, Quiñones-Hinojosa enrolled himself in community college to learn English. Before long, he found a professor to mentor him. This professor encouraged Quiñones-Hinojosa to seek a scholarship to attend the University of California, Berkeley.

At Berkley, Quiñones-Hinojosa excelled in the natural sciences. He tutored other students, and his grades were such that Harvard Medical School was eager to recruit the young Mexican with so much drive. While at Harvard, Quiñones-Hinojosa earned his U.S. citizenship before being selected to do his residency at Johns Hopkins.

Dr. Q Says Border Fences Not the Solution

Quiñones-Hinojosa's personal story of climbing over the border fence to gain access into the United States is just a microcosm of the immigration debate still raging in Washington.

Both presumptive presidential nominees Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., favor border fences, just like the one Quiñones-Hinojosa climbed.

McCain, who sponsored a 2005 immigration bill that proposed to legalize the more than 12 million undocumented immigrants in the country, now takes a much harder line on immigration. He vowed that he would not vote for the bill he co-sponsored three years ago, and emphasizes that his number one priority is to secure U.S. borders.

At the Democratic debate in Austin, Texas, on Feb. 21, 2008, Obama explained why he supported the construction of a border fence.

"There may be areas where it makes sense to have some fencing," he said. "Having the border patrolled, surveillance, deploying effective technology -- that's going to be the better approach."

The Bush administration continues to move forward on the border fence construction that Congress authorized in 2005, despite environmental concerns. Earlier this week, the Supreme Court denied an environmental group's plea to slow down construction of a U.S.-Mexican border fence.

After living on U.S. soil for more than half of his life, Quiñones-Hinojosa believes that a border fence is not the solution to illegal immigration.

"I think it's just a patch, and I think that's not going to be a solution," Quiñones-Hinojosa said of border fences. "As long as there is poverty, as long as there's inequality, people are going to look for better ways to survive. It's human nature."

I guess he took the job of a US citizen being that damn smart and all huh?? Damn foreigner trying to study at Harvard and saving lives and all.

Edited June 26, 2008 by GueraYTavo

[Ban Hammer 13,364]

i guess maybe they could add a few thousand volts to that fence too.

i doubt many illegals crossing the border have what it takes to be a brain surgeon.

Edited June 26, 2008 by charlesandnessa

[HAL 9000 96]

I guess maybe if governments did something to stop the bipolar existence of what is and what isn't possible for citizens based on economics, perhaps the fence we defend wouldn't have to have any voltage beyond the resting potential of the metal itself on the fence.

[msu17 0]

"I guess he took the job of a US citizen being that damn smart and all huh?? Damn foreigner trying to study at Harvard and saving lives and all. " Actually, ya he did. There are at least 3 people for every med school spot, and that's a lot higher for Harvard. Not that I'm saying he shouldn't be here, just that line's a load of BS

Edited June 26, 2008 by msu17

[HAL 9000 96]

Sorry for you he got in on merit.

[something that tends to get you in to private schools more so than many others]

eta: not an insult... just clarification

Edited June 26, 2008 by maviwaro

[msu17 0]

Sorry for you he got in on merit.

[something that tends to get you in to private schools more so than many others]

eta: not an insult... just clarification

As was my comment, a clarification. Obviously he's very talented, though I dont know why you're sorry for me.

[EstebanTrabajos 7]

Because neither you, me, mavi and the average Joe wouldn't be accepted in Harvard, we are too dumb. He used to pick your tomatoes buddy now he can "pick your brain." People are different and there are bad apples everywhere. My cousin entered the US illegally, she is about to become a US citizen because she worked her a%$ off, graduated from college with a BS in Chemistry, and now she is on her way to earn her PharmD. from UCSF at the age of 27. Take that! Besides, intelligence runs in the family B)

People like that deserve better, you know why??? Because one of those damn EX-illegals can save your life in the future if god forbid you develop brain cancer or he/she can, some day, come up with a new kind of drug that may cure cancer, AIDS, etc.

Einstein was a crazy old german scientist who immigrated to the US and revolutionized the world of physics...

I don't love foreigners (illegals or not), this is just a clarification...

Edited June 27, 2008 by GueraYTavo

[palilover 1]

1. How did he gain citizensihp if he was an illegal immigrant to begin with?

2. And to think I was thinking there were not enough docotors in the US. I called up a doctor a month ago to try to get an appt and she told me it would take a month for me to get an appt. Then when I said no way, she dared me to call someone else and there would be a 4 month wait. So now why is it that people are not getting into medical school then? (supposing you actually had good grades...no premed C/D/F students should pick my brain please:)

[Niels Bohr 72]

Illegals has nothing to do with talent. Unless, if illegal is being talented.

[Ban Hammer 13,364]

I don't love foreigners (illegals or not), this is just a clarification...

is your spouse aware of this?

[palilover 1]

Illegals has nothing to do with talent. Unless, if illegal is being talented.

I never said illegals had anything to do with talent.

[kerewin21 2]

1. How did he gain citizensihp if he was an illegal immigrant to begin with?

2. And to think I was thinking there were not enough docotors in the US. I called up a doctor a month ago to try to get an appt and she told me it would take a month for me to get an appt. Then when I said no way, she dared me to call someone else and there would be a 4 month wait. So now why is it that people are not getting into medical school then? (supposing you actually had good grades...no premed C/D/F students should pick my brain please:)

We don't want to pay to create more medical schools. In addition, our current system of training too few doctors, then filling our residency programs with graduates from foreign medical schools, serves us in 2 ways. First of all, we don't have to foot the bill for their training prior to residency; we let their countries pay to train them. Then we steal them away and put them in our residency programs. This is truly the clever part of our arrangement. Foreign medical grads are not getting into the elite, most competitive, most high-paying fields. Those spots are for Americans only. Instead, they're taking the spots none of the american grads want, mostly in family medicine, primary care, and psychiatry.

There is a doctor shortage, but it's mostly in the rural areas that nobody wants to go. Again, a way our current medical education system works for us: these foreign-trained doctors get to do their 3-5 years of medical training in the US, but if they want to stay, they have a problem; they can only get a visa to continue working here if they work for several years in a rural, underserved area. We get them used to living here and being american doctors, but they only get to have that privilege if they work somewhere no americans want to work.

[aidan80 9]

It's really sickening to see so much anti immigrant posts from other immigrants... like that piece of plastic makes you better than them? I think too many people here seem to forget there forefathers where illegals at one point or another.. pushing into the native lands of the Americas and later arriving by the boat load, where was your green cards then? People arrive now by plane overstay their WVP adjust and it's all fine and dandy but cross the border and all of a sudden your doing something "illegal"?

People really need to take their heads out of their arses and look at the facts. You can't and shouldn't blame everything on the big bad "illegals" that isn't the answer nor is a stupid fence. As long as the people on the other side of that fence want something better they are going to come get it and I hope they do they deserve it!

[palilover 1]

1. How did he gain citizensihp if he was an illegal immigrant to begin with?

2. And to think I was thinking there were not enough docotors in the US. I called up a doctor a month ago to try to get an appt and she told me it would take a month for me to get an appt. Then when I said no way, she dared me to call someone else and there would be a 4 month wait. So now why is it that people are not getting into medical school then? (supposing you actually had good grades...no premed C/D/F students should pick my brain please:)

We don't want to pay to create more medical schools. In addition, our current system of training too few doctors, then filling our residency programs with graduates from foreign medical schools, serves us in 2 ways. First of all, we don't have to foot the bill for their training prior to residency; we let their countries pay to train them. Then we steal them away and put them in our residency programs. This is truly the clever part of our arrangement. Foreign medical grads are not getting into the elite, most competitive, most high-paying fields. Those spots are for Americans only. Instead, they're taking the spots none of the american grads want, mostly in family medicine, primary care, and psychiatry.

There is a doctor shortage, but it's mostly in the rural areas that nobody wants to go. Again, a way our current medical education system works for us: these foreign-trained doctors get to do their 3-5 years of medical training in the US, but if they want to stay, they have a problem; they can only get a visa to continue working here if they work for several years in a rural, underserved area. We get them used to living here and being american doctors, but they only get to have that privilege if they work somewhere no americans want to work.

Hm..I never thought of it that way for foreign doctors. Well, that's kinda a two way street really. Why are the foreign doctors "forced" upon the rural towns? Is it because the government thinks rural areas are second best? And secondly, the foreign doctors are qualified to come here and work if they've done the school. They should get to pick their residancy (or at least give a selection of choices) just like everyone else. But I guess an advantage in wanting to get them used to being American doctors is it is easier to get them used to it in the slower paced rural towns than the faster paced cities. Because starting out as a doctor and gettng used to American life are two very big things in life-if done single, let alone done all at once.

[Niels Bohr 72]

1. How did he gain citizensihp if he was an illegal immigrant to begin with?

2. And to think I was thinking there were not enough docotors in the US. I called up a doctor a month ago to try to get an appt and she told me it would take a month for me to get an appt. Then when I said no way, she dared me to call someone else and there would be a 4 month wait. So now why is it that people are not getting into medical school then? (supposing you actually had good grades...no premed C/D/F students should pick my brain please:)

We don't want to pay to create more medical schools. In addition, our current system of training too few doctors, then filling our residency programs with graduates from foreign medical schools, serves us in 2 ways. First of all, we don't have to foot the bill for their training prior to residency; we let their countries pay to train them. Then we steal them away and put them in our residency programs. This is truly the clever part of our arrangement. Foreign medical grads are not getting into the elite, most competitive, most high-paying fields. Those spots are for Americans only. Instead, they're taking the spots none of the american grads want, mostly in family medicine, primary care, and psychiatry.

There is a doctor shortage, but it's mostly in the rural areas that nobody wants to go. Again, a way our current medical education system works for us: these foreign-trained doctors get to do their 3-5 years of medical training in the US, but if they want to stay, they have a problem; they can only get a visa to continue working here if they work for several years in a rural, underserved area. We get them used to living here and being american doctors, but they only get to have that privilege if they work somewhere no americans want to work.

Hm..I never thought of it that way for foreign doctors. Well, that's kinda a two way street really. Why are the foreign doctors "forced" upon the rural towns? Is it because the government thinks rural areas are second best? And secondly, the foreign doctors are qualified to come here and work if they've done the school. They should get to pick their residancy (or at least give a selection of choices) just like everyone else. But I guess an advantage in wanting to get them used to being American doctors is it is easier to get them used to it in the slower paced rural towns than the faster paced cities. Because starting out as a doctor and gettng used to American life are two very big things in life-if done single, let alone done all at once.

The Chief Surgeon of Massachusetts General Hospital just past away recently. He is a foreigner, and earned his degree in a foreign University. He's been serving Massachusetts General Hospital for decades. He operated on John F. Kennedy too. Actually, he operated on a number of famous celebrities and important political figures. He died not that long ago.

There's a lack of doctors in the USA. Start making these kids smarter or motivate them. Have high expectations for them. If I would've gotten a B+ on my report card in high school, my parents wouldn't look at me, or congratulate me. They have very high expectations. So many of us wonder why there are so many foriegn doctors, but, seldom realize that the US is missing the point with raising their children.