Haitian TPS Expiry Leaves Disabled Americans Without Caregivers as 350,000 Lose Work Rights
- A Long Island mother said her disabled son lost his Haitian caregiver after the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for 350,000 Haitians
- Care organisations across the US have been forced to lay off Haitian staff, with one nonprofit on Long Island letting go of 19 Haitian workers this year alone
- A bipartisan bill to extend TPS for Haitians has stalled in the US Senate amid Republican opposition, leaving families and workers in limbo
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Hundreds of families across the United States are scrambling for care after the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians, forcing care organisations to lay off workers who had supported some of the country's most vulnerable people.
Among those affected is Linda Mancuso, a Long Island mother whose 23-year-old nonverbal son Michael lost his Haitian caregiver, Jean, at the end of July.
Source: Getty Images
Jean had held a temporary work permit that lapsed when TPS expired for around 350,000 Haitian nationals, following a Supreme Court ruling in favour of the administration.
"Showering, sleeping, eating, tying his shoes - Michael can't tie his shoes - I mean, there's so much hands-on involvement, and Jean did all of that," Mancuso said.
A workforce in crisis
According to BBC, the care industry, which relies heavily on immigrant labour, has absorbed some of the heaviest blows. AHRC Nassau, the nonprofit that employed Jean, was forced to let go of 19 Haitian staff this year and 22 the year before amid broader immigration crackdowns.
Chief executive Stanfort Perry said the organisation was already struggling to attract workers before the latest wave of departures.
"It takes us months to recruit one individual to work in this field, train them and prepare them to provide compassionate, caring support to a person with an intellectual and developmental disability," Perry said.
Jewish Community Services of South Florida lost 18 Haitian TPS holders. Director of strategic communications Sarah Katzenstein said the impact on elderly clients, many of them Holocaust survivors, had been severe. "They had relationships with these home care aides for years - some of them for decades," she said.
Kezia Scales, vice-president of policy and research at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, said Haiti ranks among the top five source countries for the direct-care workforce. "We simply do not have enough people in our domestic market, when you exclude immigrants, to fill those jobs," she told BBC News.
Government defends the decision
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson pushed back against criticism of the policy. "Temporary Protected Status is exactly that - temporary," the spokesperson said, adding that the claim that healthcare can only be sustained by "unvetted illegal aliens" was "grossly false and lazy."
White House border czar Tom Homan also defended the deportations of hundreds of Haitians since the Supreme Court ruling. "The judges made a decision they must go home. And they need to go home... we're just enforcing the law," he said in a CNN interview.
A Pew Research survey conducted in June 2025 found that 59% of Americans opposed ending TPS for Haitians, though a more recent AP-NORC poll showed support for Trump's overall immigration policy had dropped 10 percentage points since the start of his second term.
Jewish Community Services and other organisations have lobbied for Senate Bill 4814, which would extend TPS for Haitians. The bill has stalled in the Senate due to Republican opposition, despite a bipartisan version already clearing the House.
Back on Long Island, Mancuso said she remains desperate for a resolution. "I'm hoping against hope that this thing gets resolved," she said. "I want him back."
US ends temporary protection for 4 African countries
Legit.ng earlier reported that the United States government has ended Temporary Protected Status for nationals of Somalia, South Sudan, Cameroon and Ethiopia, in what marks a continued rollback of a humanitarian immigration programme under President Donald Trump.
Source: Legit.ng
