Retirement communities to lose Haitian staff as TPS expiration looms

Every day at the Sinai Residences retirement community in Boca Raton, Florida, is choose-your-own-adventure — there are fancy movie theatres, game rooms and in-house restaurants.

“We have a full gym, fitness classes throughout the day. Just like being on a cruise, the calendar is never ending,” said Christian Keys, vice president of culinary services.

The atmosphere is cheery. Residents and staff wave and say “hi” as they pass each other in the halls.

“Everyone that works here, they've got a smile on their face. They're like family,” said Murray Rubin, a 92-year-old resident who counts these years as the best of his life.

When his wife of 69 years died almost two years ago, “The warmth and the empathy that the … staff showed, [they’d] come and ask you if there's anything they could do for me. You know, you can't put dollars on that,” he said.

Around 70% of the 450 workers here at Sinai Residences are foreign born — many are Haitian. Twenty-six of them are expected to lose their Temporary Protected Status under recent moves by the Trump administration. Without TPS, these Haitians will no longer have the right to work and live legally in the United States.

Rubin worries what happens to these workers when they’re forced to leave.

“They’re wonderful people and they don’t deserve that,” he said.

The Trump administration’s immigration policies, including its move to end TPS for Haitians and other nationalities, is making the aging care workforce smaller despite a growing demographic challenge: As baby boomers age, the U.S. is going to look more and more like Florida and elder care facilities will be in higher demand.

Unless a federal court intervenes, TPS will end Feb. 3 for around 350,000 Haitians, despite many of them working critical health care jobs across the country, including many in-demand positions in aging care facilities.

At Sinai Residences in South Florida, certified nursing assistant Mary is one of the 26 Haitian workers who is likely to lose her Temporary Protected Status. Marketplace isn’t using her real name because of her immigration situation.

“I like to care for people, [especially] the elderly people,” Mary said. “Sometimes, when you finish, like, even they have BM, then you finish, clean them, they say, ‘Oh, thank you.’ But, I'm happy.”

Mary earns around $40,000 a year at this high-touch job where she helps people stay clean and comfortable.

“This is the way I pay my bills,” she said, “so it's not hard for me.”

Mary’s salary helps her take care of her dad who has cancer back in Haiti and her four children who are U.S. citizens. She’s lived in the U.S. for two decades.

She said she’s been sick with nerves thinking about how she’s going to pay the bills come February, if she loses her work permit.

“I don't know what I can do,” she said. “I pray God do something for us … because it's really hard. When you got four kids, you can’t drive … and then you can’t work to give them food … so it's really hard,” she said.

And it’s not just nurses who will be forced to leave their jobs.

In a gray uniform, Richard makes the rounds taking out the trash through carpeted halls. Richard is 30 and fled Haiti a few years ago after a gang attacked him. His family sponsored him under a Biden-era immigration program and he’s afraid what will happen if he goes back.

“I survived many bad treatment,” he said. “They kill the president [of] Haiti … they can kill anybody.”

With the $35,000 or so he earns annually on the maintenance team, he’s been paying for school to become a licensed practical nurse.

“Because I love care [for] people,” he said.

If he loses TPS, he’ll try to stay in South Florida — he likes the weather, the people. He’ll find gig work. But money will be tight.

“You have to pay insurance, car, pay rent, food,” he said.

He’ll have to stop studying nursing.

CEO Rachel Blumberg has tried to figure out how to keep her workers, but there’s not much she can do. She is hiring replacements, but she knows it’s not the same.

“You can never replace those bonds that have been built over a decade with those individuals. They held the hand of our residents when they passed away. They celebrated milestones, birthdays, anniversaries,” Blumberg said.

But someone has to do these jobs and Blumberg has been forced to hike wages multiple times for the positions affected by TPS: nurses, CNAs, maintenance, housekeeping, culinary and dishwashers.

She said competition for labor could lead to a wage war.

“There will be a ripple effect, and everybody's going to be fighting for the same employees in the same city,” she said.

She’s been hiring replacements proactively – but as the shortage of workers intensifies and the population ages, not all facilities have the resources to do the same.

“It could lead to more nursing homes closing wings, downsizing or maybe even closing their doors,” she said.

Aging care facilities have already downsized because of staffing issues, especially in rural areas. If TPS ends, the labor supply will get even smaller.