Massachusetts health, human services and nursing care employers — along with many others — are laying off and placing many Haitians with temporary protected status, or TPS, on leave.
The Supreme Court ruled in June that the Trump administration could roll back the protection for at least 330,000 Haitians nationwide. Temporary protected status for Haiti officially expired on July 27, stripping at least 19,000 people in Massachusetts of the status, according to FWD.US, a criminal justice and immigration policy organization.
Haitians were first granted TPS after the 2010 earthquake, which created conditions that were considered too dangerous for people to return. TPS for Haitians has been extended several times since 2010.
About 1,500 workers will be impacted in Massachusetts nursing care facilities alone, according to the attorney general's office. One in three home and personal care aides are foreign-born, according to the Framingham-based human services trade association the Providers' Council, including many with Haitian TPS.
Bill Yelenak is president and CEO of the group, which represents about 220 human services agencies across the state. The groups support people with disabilities, with mental health challenges, women and children who need support, elderly, homelessness and veterans. He said the sector "doesn't function without immigrants."
The Providers' Council report with the UMass Donahue institute also found that 1 in 6 direct care jobs are vacant in the state.
"These are positions that no one was lining up to take, and folks who are here from other countries have really helped us fill the gap and been able to deliver essential services to residents," he said.
Employers reflect on changes
The health and human services field often pay low wages, and require compassion, dedication, and respect of elders. It's not an easy career path.
"In the human services field, much of what we do is based upon relationships between the direct service workers and the people that we serve," said Kevin Martone, president and CEO of Bay Cove Human Services, which supports 25,000 people across eastern Massachusetts.
"To have those therapeutic relationships severed pretty abruptly has a strong negative impact on the people that we serve." He added that from a business perspective, filling those positions will be expensive and time consuming.
They laid off nine individuals, including nursing assistants and a medication specialist. Some had worked for the group for over a decade, and all provided great quality care, Martone said.
"These were really good people. Salt-of-the-earth people who have really contributed a lot to serving people with disabilities in the community," he said.
Another provider, Road to Responsibility, works with adults who have developmental disabilities and brain injuries. They've had to lay off 17 people. The organization lost over 100 others who had parole status through a separate program last year.
"People become very close, very attached to each other. A number of our members require a lot of personal care, help with feeding, help with toileting, help with really basic life skills," President Christopher White said. "It requires a lot of trust between the member and the staff person. And it also forges that kind of intimacy, just forges a real closeness. And so, when one of our members loses a staff person who's been trusted, that's very disruptive to them."
Hebrew SeniorLife serves 4,500 seniors daily at seven locations through long-term care and rehabilitation services in Massachusetts. They've had to place 35 Haitian TPS holders on administrative leave with no shifts scheduled. The organization previously lost about 100 employees to other immigration policy changes.
"To find someone who is willing to do this kind of work religiously for the past 16 years — coming in, being dependable, providing outstanding care — it's just hard for any employer to replace 16 years of loyalty," said CEO Adam Scott. "Not only have they been dependable to our organization, but they've been dependable in their communities."
The organization was originally going to place more people on leave, but several were able to find work authorization through another immigration status.
"Once someone presents new employment authorization documentation ... we process that with the federal government's E-Verify system within an hour," Scott said. "This has been an exercise in needing to be nimble and needing to respond in a crisis to our employees' needs."
Hospital networks are also being impacted. Fifteen employees at Cambridge Health Alliance were affected, according to a spokesperson.
Vinfen, a health and human services provider with hundreds of locations across Massachusetts and Connecticut, placed 21 employees with TPS, who work in direct care in congregate group home settings, on unpaid administrative lave.
"We work with some of the most vulnerable individuals in the state, and having compassionate care with staff who have worked with these individuals for extended periods of time is so vitally important to the services we provide," said Michelle Fraser, director of employee relations there. "By having this disruption, it does potentially impact the continuity and the quality of care that we provide." The group serves 14,000 people.
The process has been confusing, often with little guidance from the federal government about the requirement changes as TPS wound its way through court.
"We've had uncertainty along the way," said Yelenak of the Providers' Council. One member, he said terminated "either two dozen or three dozen employees, and then call them back the next day because [the status] wasn't terminated."
GBH News has previously covered home care employers who misinterpreted court orders and laid off workers, only to rehire them after news stories published.
Fraser said the process has been "convoluted," with a lack of clear communication as to what employers are supposed to do while court hearings were pending.
Martone of Bay Cove Human Services described it as "a bit of a roller coaster."
Haitian TPS holders speak out
Francois Jean Baptiste, a licensed practical nurse, is a Haitian TPS holder living in eastern Massachusetts. He owns his home and lives with his wife and teenager, and said he loves his work. "The patients, the residents, the elderly, they know me, I take care of them," he said.
Baptiste immigrated to the state after the devastating earthquake and has never returned due to ongoing gang violence and political instability in the country.
He finished his coursework to be a registered nurse and wants to take the qualifying exam, but doesn't know what to do now. Baptiste is still on his employers' calendar for shifts and worries that that might change soon.
"That's going to impact me — my job helps me to pay my mortgage, to pay for my car, to pay for everything." He's hoping that Senate Bill S.4814 passes, a measure that would extend TPS for Haitians through April 2029.
"Since we're working, we pay tax, we take care of our seniors, maybe lawmakers will understand that they can create the pathway, so they can renew that TPS," said Baptiste.
Other Haitian temporary protected status holders have already been laid off.
"My family, we're discussing how we are going to manage the future. I try to process my trauma right now," said Jean, a Haitian TPS holder living in Boston who worked as a parking garage manager at a local hospital and was laid off Monday. GBH News is only using his first name due to his fears of detention and deportation.
"I spoke with my bosses. We discussed about my status, about my situation. Then, I was aware that after Monday, I would not be able to keep working for the company. And they treat me with respect," he said. Jean said he knew that he won't be allowed to work, but doesn't know how to provide for his family now. " I respect laws. I don't want to break any laws," he said.
Jean came to Massachusetts in 2010 after the earthquake, and acquired TPS the next year. He has several adult children and his youngest child is 17-years-old.
"It's going to be a tough, tough situation, he said, adding that he feels the same way he did during the earthquake. "Like there is no hope. That's what I feel right now. But since I know God, you know, God never fails."
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