Nursing & bedside care
Haitian TPS holders work as certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, and patient-care technicians in hospitals, rehab centers, and long-term care facilities.
Policy resource
Haitian TPS holders in the U.S. healthcare system
Haitian TPS holders are a vital part of the healthcare workforce, especially in nursing, eldercare, and home health. Extending TPS protects caregivers and the patients and families who rely on them.
Workforce reality
Where Haitian TPS holders serve
From hospital wards to home-care visits, Haitian TPS holders fill critical gaps in a strained healthcare system.
Eldercare & home health
Many Haitian TPS holders provide direct care to older adults, helping with meals, mobility, medication reminders, and companionship in home-health and assisted-living settings.
Community health workers
Haitian TPS holders often serve as multilingual bridge-builders, connecting Creole-speaking patients to clinics, insurance navigators, and public-health services.
Underserved regions
From rural Florida to urban New York, Haitian TPS healthcare workers fill labor shortages in places where U.S.-born workers are harder to recruit and retain.
Why it matters
Losing these workers would hurt patients and families
TPS is not just immigration policy. For hospitals, nursing homes, and home-care agencies, it is workforce policy.
- Temporary Protected Status lets Haitians live and work legally while Haiti remains unsafe for return.
- Losing work authorization would remove experienced caregivers from a workforce already facing staffing shortages.
- Many Haitian TPS healthcare workers are parents of U.S.-citizen children; deportation would split families.
- Their tax contributions and payroll taxes help fund Medicare and Social Security.
- Patients in nursing homes and home-care settings rely on consistent, long-term relationships with caregivers.
By the numbers
100,000+
Haitian TPS holders were living and working in the United States as of recent estimates.
~1 in 8
U.S. healthcare workers are foreign-born; immigrant workers are essential to nursing and home-health staffing.
Millions
of older Americans and people with disabilities rely on home-health and long-term care aides every day.
Sources: Congressional Research Service, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and published immigrant workforce research. Exact figures vary by source and year.
Deep dive
Haitian TPS healthcare workers: a policy brief
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a humanitarian designation the United States grants to nationals of countries experiencing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions. Haiti has held TPS designations for years because of political instability, violence, and economic collapse that the U.S. government has repeatedly found make return unsafe.
Haitians with TPS are not visitors. They are long-term residents, many of whom have lived in the United States for a decade or more. They pay taxes, raise U.S.-citizen children, and work in industries that depend on reliable labor. Among the most important of those industries is healthcare.
Nursing and eldercare: the frontline of care
Haitian TPS workers are overrepresented in the nursing-assistant, home-health-aide, and personal-care workforce. These jobs are physically demanding, emotionally intense, and often underpaid, yet they are the backbone of long-term care in the United States. Workers in these roles bathe, feed, and lift patients; monitor vital signs; manage medication schedules; and provide the human contact that keeps older adults out of hospitals and in their homes.
For Haitian Creole-speaking patients, these workers are also cultural and linguistic bridges. In South Florida, Boston, New York, and New Jersey, Haitian healthcare workers help patients navigate appointments, prescriptions, and end-of-life decisions in a language they trust.
The economic argument for extension
Removing Haitian TPS holders from the workforce would not just harm families; it would cost the economy. TPS holders hold mortgages, run small businesses, and pay billions in taxes. In healthcare specifically, their labor reduces reliance on costly emergency-room visits and institutional care by keeping patients stable at home. Replacing them would be expensive and slow, especially in regions already facing severe staffing shortages.
S. 4814 and the path forward
S. 4814 is the Senate bill advocates are organizing around to provide a legislative solution for Haitian TPS holders. Whether your senators are Democrats, Republicans, or independents, they need to hear from constituents who understand that healthcare depends on a stable, authorized workforce.
Healthcare workers are patients' neighbors too.
Extending TPS is not abstract. It means the nurse who checked on your parent, the aide who helped your grandparent bathe, and the home-health worker who kept a family member out of the hospital can keep showing up.
Every call is counted. Every share reaches someone who may not know a colleague is at risk.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
How many Haitian TPS holders work in healthcare?
While precise sector-by-sector counts are not published by DHS, workforce and immigrant-integration studies consistently show that a large share of employed Haitian TPS holders are in healthcare support, nursing, and personal-care occupations. Community surveys and local workforce data in Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and New Jersey highlight the density of Haitian workers in home health and eldercare.
Why is nursing and eldercare the focus?
The U.S. faces a long-term shortage of nurses, nursing assistants, and home-health aides. Haitian TPS holders are overrepresented in these roles relative to their share of the overall population. Their loss would be felt immediately by hospitals, nursing homes, and the families who depend on in-home care.
What happens if TPS is not extended?
Without an extension, work authorization expires and deportation protection ends. Workers could lose jobs, employers could lose trained staff, and patients could lose trusted caregivers. The ripple effect would reach families, local tax bases, and public-health systems.
What can healthcare employers do?
Employers can sign public statements of support, meet with lawmakers, and share workforce data showing how Haitian TPS employees anchor their care teams. They can also direct staff to verified legal resources and encourage employees to contact their senators about S. 4814.
This page is for general educational and advocacy purposes. It is not legal advice. For individual immigration questions, consult a qualified immigration attorney or an accredited legal representative.
Take action
Protect the workers who care for us
Use the tools below to call your senators, add your name to the petition, and share this resource with people who care about healthcare.
Want to do more? Employers can add a statement of support