The Florida Health Care Association (FHCA), which represents 90% of Florida’s almost 700 nursing homes, is calling upon the Department of Homeland Security to allow Haitians with temporary protected status (TPS) to continue working in long-term care while pursuing available lawful immigration pathways.
Out of the 350,000 Haitians living in the country with TPS, half live in Florida, according to FHCA CEO J. Emmett Reed, and a percentage of about 35,000 likely work in nursing homes.
And the state’s long-term care providers continue to face workforce shortages despite sustained investments in recruitment, training, wage increases and retention initiatives, he said. Certified nursing assistants (CNAs), dietary staff, environmental services personnel and maintenance employees remain in critically short supply.
Meanwhile, Florida is on track to have one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing older adult populations, with labor demands in the long-term care sector continuing to increase each year, Reed said.
“Any significant reduction in the available workforce would make it more difficult to serve current and new residents, causing a ripple effect that could overwhelm our local hospitals and the entire health care system,” Reed noted in a July 7 letter.
National workforce analyses indicate one in five Haitian TPS holders work in health care, Reed said in the letter, a story in the local NPR affiliate states.
“While a portion of those individuals work in skilled nursing centers and other long term care settings, the loss of even a small percentage of these experienced caregivers would be detrimental to residents’ continuity of care as well as providers who are already struggling to fill essential positions,” Reed wrote.
FHCA is also asking DHS to work with federal and state health care agencies to evaluate the impact on long-term care providers before implementing actions that could further reduce an already strained nursing home workforce in Florida, which is home to 695 nursing homes and one of the largest populations of older adults above 65.
The association’s request follows the Supreme Court ruling allowing the Trump administration to end TPS for Haitians, Syrians and possibly more than 1.3 million immigrants from multiple countries who have legally lived and worked in the country for years. TPS designations for Haitians were set to expire on July 10, but the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on Friday an extension until July 24.
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