Haitian caregivers lose their US work permits as TPS expires

Haitian caregivers in the United States lost the right to work legally after Temporary Protected Status for Haiti expired at the end of July, following a Supreme Court ruling. Care providers on Long Island and in Florida have laid off Haitian staff, leaving families of disabled adults and elderly patients without caregivers they had relied on for years.

Who lost Temporary Protected Status?

The Trump administration announced in June 2025 that it would end TPS for Haitians, the programme that allows eligible nationals of unsafe countries to live and work in the US. The legal fight went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in favour of the administration. Holders of the status can no longer work legally in the country and are at risk of deportation.

How many Haitians are affected?

The ruling paved the way for 350,000 Haitians to lose their status at the end of July. More than a dozen countries have had TPS terminated during Trump’s second term, and Haitians account for nearly a third of all TPS recipients affected.

How is the US care industry affected?

At AHRC Nassau, a nonprofit on Long Island that supports people with developmental and intellectual disabilities, chief executive Stanfort Perry said the organisation let go of 19 Haitian staff this year and 22 last year. “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.

Kezia Scales, vice-president of policy and research at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, said Haiti is among the top five countries of origin for immigrants in the direct-care workforce. “We simply do not have enough people in our domestic market, when you exclude immigrants, to fill those jobs,” she said.

What do the families say?

Linda Mancuso, a mother of two on Long Island, said her 23-year-old son Michael is nonverbal and needs help showering, eating, sleeping and tying his shoes. Jean, the caregiver who looked after him at his adult home, was laid off at the end of July along with 18 other Haitians. “He’s literally a lifeline,” Mancuso said of Jean.

Jewish Community Services of South Florida lost 18 Haitian TPS holders. Sarah Katzenstein, the organisation’s director of strategic communications and marketing, said the aides who remain are working overtime. “That is a huge financial strain on a nonprofit like us,” she said. Many of the seniors the organisation serves are Holocaust survivors who had built relationships with their Haitian caregivers over years or decades, Katzenstein said.

What are US officials doing?

Jewish Community Services has been writing to elected officials to support Senate Bill 4814, which would extend TPS for Haitians and matches a bipartisan bill already passed in the House. The measure has stalled in the Senate, blocked by Republican opposition.

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said “Temporary Protected Status is exactly that – temporary”, and called “grossly false and lazy” the assertion that the healthcare industry can only be supported by allowing “unvetted illegal aliens” to remain in the country. Tom Homan, a White House official, defended the deportations in a CNN interview, saying the judges had decided that holders “must go home” and that the administration was “just enforcing the law”.

Frequently asked questions

How many Haitians lost Temporary Protected Status?

The Supreme Court ruling paved the way for 350,000 Haitians to lose their TPS at the end of July. Holders can no longer work legally in the US and are at risk of deportation.

Why were Haitian caregivers laid off in the United States?

Their Temporary Protected Status expired, so employers could no longer legally employ them. AHRC Nassau, a nonprofit on Long Island, let go of 19 Haitian staff this year and 22 last year.

What is Senate Bill 4814?

It is a bill that would extend TPS for Haitians and matches a bipartisan measure already passed in the House. It has stalled in the Senate, blocked by Republican opposition.

With reporting from BBC News.

Stock image, not from the events described. City Skyline — Burst / Wikimedia Commons (CC0 1.0)