Fearful of risking their jobs, jeopardizing state funding for their institutions, and further politicizing health care, Florida hospital leaders have been reluctant to speak out against a new law that requires them to ask about patients’ immigration status.

While Florida joins Kansas, Texas, Mississippi, and a handful of other states in proposing crackdowns on immigrants lacking legal residency, no other state has mandated that hospitals question patients about their citizenship.

Doctors, nurses, and health policy experts say the law targets marginalized people who already have difficulty navigating the health care system and will further deter them from seeking medical help.

Olveen Carrasquillo, a practicing physician and professor at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine, said he’s dismayed that more health care professionals aren’t speaking out against the harm the law may cause.

“Imagine if all the hospitals said, ‘This is wrong. We can’t do it.’ But they just stay silent because they may lose state funding,” Carrasquillo said. “We do have political leaders who are very vindictive and who come after you.”

Touted by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as “the most ambitious anti-illegal immigration” legislation in the country, Florida’s law was enacted in July and requires, among other