Long-term care facilities for elderly and disabled individuals report losing some staff members whose legal status has been revoked under Trump’s policies. But administrators are even more concerned about the future, as legal immigration slows and the supply of potential caregivers dwindles.
“We’re feeling overwhelmed,” said Deke Cateau, CEO of A.G. Rhodes, which operates three nursing homes in the Atlanta area. About one-third of the facility’s staff come from roughly 36 different countries. “The hiring pipeline is shrinking fast.”
Eight of Cateau’s employees are expected to leave due to the end of their Temporary Protected Status (TPS)—a program allowing individuals from countries facing instability to live and work in the U.S. legally. Although TPS workers make up a small portion of A.G. Rhodes’ 500 employees, Cateau said they’ll be “extremely hard, if not impossible, to replace.”
While the Biden administration has since expanded TPS to include more people from countries like Venezuela and Haiti, the lasting impact of earlier cuts during Trump’s presidency continues to disrupt staffing at facilities like Cateau’s.
