Because of the cuts to health care programs in Trump’s Big Ugly Bill, families across the country are already facing higher costs and a growing shortage of affordable health care, child care, and aging and disability care. And now, the Trump administration has ended Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections for 1.3 million people, including at least 50,000 healthcare workers who provide essential care in our communities. [1]

Urge the Trump Administration to act immediately to extend TPS for Haiti and El Salvador and demand Congress pass the American Dream and Promise Act which would provide a path to citizenship for TPS recipients and Dreamers, allowing families to stay together and protect essential healthcare, homecare, and childcare workers in our communities.

What's happening? The Trump administration's termination of TPS is part of a broader effort to strip immigrants of their legal status and expand mass deportations. Hundreds of thousands of TPS recipients who registered with the U.S. government, passed background checks, and paid required fees, are now at risk of losing their work authorization, being separated from their families, and being deported from the communities they have helped strengthen for decades.

They are nurses, nursing assistants, child care providers, home health aides, teachers, entrepreneurs, neighbors, and family members. Their work contributes an estimated $29 billion to our economy, pays $7.8 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, and they are parents of 390,000 U.S. citizen children. [2]

Deporting long-term workers is not only cruel, but it also deepens care workforce shortages, weakens local economies, and increases costs for everyone. [3] Families across the country will feel the impact as trusted caregivers disappear and communities lose essential workers who help care for our children, older adults, people with disabilities, and patients every day.

Congress must act now. TPS holders and Dreamers have waited long enough for permanent protections. Tell your members of Congress to pass the American Dream and Promise Act. It's time to protect caregivers, keep families together, and deliver the permanent protections they deserve.

TAKE ACTION! Tell Congress and DHS to save TPS by passing the American Dream and Promise Act, and protect the families, caregivers, and communities that depend on them.

“I have lived in this country for 20 years. I work as a caregiver at a rehabilitation center in Maryland. My child was born here, and the United States has been my home for more than half of my life.

TPS has allowed me to provide for my family and build a stable life. If TPS for El Salvador ends, I could lose not only my ability to support my child financially, but also face the devastating possibility of being separated from her through deportation. The thought of losing everything we have built together is heartbreaking.” - Nancy in Maryland 

Nancy's story is shared by more than 232,000 Salvadorans with TPS who have lived, worked, and paid taxes in the United States for more than 25 years. [4] They have built businesses, strengthened local economies, cared for our families, and are raising more than 150,000 U.S. citizen children. Ending TPS would not only uproot these long-settled families, it would take essential workers out of our communities and leave hundreds of thousands of American families facing unnecessary hardship.

A Haitian healthcare worker in New York shared a similar fear: "During the pandemic, I was part of the team that helped keep a hospital running. We cared for patients when the world was falling apart. Now, without TPS, I lose my ability to work, support my family, and continue serving my community. I have lived in this country for more than 20 years." 

Across the country, Haitian TPS holders are indispensable members of the care workforce. Of the approximately 350,000 Haitians with TPS, about 200,000 are currently employed, including an estimated 13,000 nursing assistants and 8,000 caregivers who provide essential care to older adults, people with disabilities, and patients every day. [5] [6]

Many TPS holders work in the U.S. care economy, making up an estimated 15% of all noncitizen healthcare workers. Losing thousands of experienced caregivers would worsen critical workforce shortages, forcing nursing homes to reduce capacity, home care agencies to turn away patients, and hospitals to operate with even fewer staff. [7] For older adults and people with disabilities, it would mean disrupted care and the loss of trusted caregivers. For families, it would mean greater financial, emotional, and caregiving burdens at a time when many are already stretched to the limit.

Add your name to tell Congress and DHS to protect TPS and the essential caregivers who keep our families, communities, and economy strong.

America’s moms are calling on Congress to act immediately to protect the 1.3 million TPS holders and their families from the devastating consequences of detention, deportation, and family separation. Ending TPS would not only uproot families, but also weaken the care infrastructure that millions of children, older adults, and people with disabilities rely on, as many TPS holders work as caregivers and healthcare professionals. 

It would force many people to return to countries facing armed conflict, political instability, natural disasters, and humanitarian crises. Venezuelan TPS holders, for example, now face being deported to a country still experiencing profound instability and recovering from recent natural disasters after their protections were terminated.

We cannot allow our neighbors, friends, coworkers, caregivers, and family members, people who have built their lives here for decades, to be torn away from the places they call home. We urge every member of Congress to act now to protect TPS holders and pass permanent protections that keep families together, and allow TPS holders to continue working, caring for their loved ones, and contributing to the communities they have called home for years.

References:

[1] ‘Devastating’: lives of nurses and patients upended by Trump migrant crackdown, The Guardian

[2] Temporary Protected Status protects families while also boosting the U.S. economy, FWD

[3] Prices for all Americans are set to unnecessarily rise under recent and proposed immigration policies impacting the U.S. labor force, FWD

[4] Updated Data From FWD.us and the National TPS Alliance Reveals the Immense Human and Economic Cost of Terminating Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador, FWD

[5], [6] Legal protections for nearly 350,000 Haitians at risk as US Supreme Court nears ruling, News From The States

[7] TPS work permit loss could deepen healthcare staffing shortages, NPR