The administration’s anti-immigration policies are exacerbating pre-existing staffing shortages.
Nursing homes and other health care providers are struggling to fill vacancies as the Trump administration cracks down on immigration. Last year more than 41 percent of home health aides in the U.S. were born outside the U.S. The data also shows that 30 percent of nursing home housekeeping and maintenance employees, 22 percent of nursing assistants, and 28 percent of personal care aides are foreign-born. With the administration ending temporary protected status for hundreds of thousands of people from more than a dozen countries, many legal residents working in health care are being forced to leave the U.S. Officials have also suspended refugee programs, which during the Biden administration worked with resettlement agencies to staff housekeeping, dietary, and other ancillary positions at nursing homes.
The U.S. was experiencing a shortage of caregivers for the country’s disabled and elderly populations even before the immigration policy changes. Now patient advocates and policy experts warn the crackdown could lead to a lower quality of care.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-immigration-crackdown-is-hitting-nursing-homes-hard