US Eldercare Industry Losing Workers Due to Deportations: It Used to Be Mostly Migrants

White House immigration crackdown hits long-term care industry, with nursing homes and health care providers losing foreign workers and struggling to hire new ones, writes Axios.

Photo: Arne9001 | Dreamstime.com

Migrants care for people with disabilities and the country's rapidly growing elderly population. There has long been a shortage of specialists.

Experts warn that the quality of care people receive is under threat.

“We have facilities with empty units, and it’s not because there aren’t enough patients — it’s just because there aren’t enough staff,” said Robin Wolzenburg, senior vice president of clinical and regulatory services at LeadingAge Wisconsin.

On the subject: American woman drowned her grandmother because she couldn't pay for a nursing home

Volzenburg coordinates with refugee resettlement agencies to fill shortages in health care, placing refugees in cleaning, food service, and other support positions needed to keep facilities running.

But this year, the Trump administration suspended refugee programs.

Foreign-born workers make up 30% of cleaning and maintenance workers at nursing homes, according to LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit providers of senior care services. By comparison, foreign-born workers make up 19% of all U.S. workers, according to the Labor Department.

In the United States, more than 41% of home caregivers were foreign-born last year, according to data provided by the Labor Department.
22% of nursing assistants are also foreigners, and 28% of elderly caregivers are foreigners.

“When it comes to caring for someone with autism or Alzheimer's, the connection with the caregiver is incredibly important,” says Nicole Jorvik, chief program officer for Caring Across Generations, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

For example, as the New York Times recently reported, the beloved caregiver of a young man with autism in Virginia is now in danger of being deported for a minor offense committed years ago. The patient is having a hard time adjusting to life without him.

Nursing homes have long faced staff shortages, a situation that has reached crisis levels during the pandemic.

As David Grabowski, a professor at Harvard Medical School, concluded, neighborhoods with more immigrants were better able to cope with the crisis.

According to a study he published earlier this year, facilities with more foreign workers provided better quality care.
"Many people say that foreigners take jobs or worsen the quality. This is not the case here," he assured.

Rachel Blumberg, CEO of Toby and Leon Cooperman Sinai Residences, a senior living community in Boca Raton, Florida, learned on June 13 that 10 of her employees were facing deportation after the White House revoked their permits to remain and work in the United States.

She had to fire them by calling each one into her office to break the bad news.
"It was like a funeral," she said. "It's hard to look someone in the eye and say, 'You can't work here anymore, even though you're a great employee.'"
Another 30 Haitian workers are likely to hear the same thing on August 3, when their Temporary Protected Status expires.
Bloomberg estimates that she will have to spend about $600 more a year on raising salaries to attract new workers - and those costs will be passed on to tenants.

Not every institution can raise salaries. Those that rely heavily on Medicaid funding simply don't have the luxury of doing so.

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These facilities risk Medicaid cuts under the Big Beautiful Bill.

“There is no shortage of American minds and hands to grow our economy. President Trump’s Workforce Modernization agenda reaffirms this administration’s commitment to harnessing untapped potential while fulfilling our mandate to enforce immigration laws,” said White House spokesman Kush Desai.

He cited data showing that one in 16 Americans aged 24 to XNUMX is unemployed.

Regardless, the situation is this: immigrants play a key role in caring for the most vulnerable Americans—and now those immigrants are being kicked out of the country.

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