2026-08-19T10:04:42.669Z / 路透社
- 约2.1万名海地临时保护身份持有者在美国从事护工工作，服务约7.7万名患者
- 纽约非营利机构贾沃尼奥在保护身份终止后裁员7%，重创难以填补的残疾护理岗位
- 佛罗里达州向国土安全部申请为长期海地护工豁免政策
纽约州新城市8月19日路透电——43岁的里奇·罗森天生患有罕见的威廉姆斯综合征遗传病。他双手无力且难以控制，渴望与人交流却在社交场合感到焦虑，极易情绪失控。
四年来，名叫塔西的海地护工帮助他在纽约州北部一所成年智障男性集体之家打理日常生活——为他做饭、开车带他出门，让繁杂的日常琐事变得更容易应对。
但7月27日，运营该机构的非营利组织贾沃尼奥终止了塔西的合同，原因是特朗普政府取消了海地人的临时保护身份及其附带的工作许可。
“我非常想念他，”罗森上周在位于纽约州北部绿树成荫的郊区洛克兰县的集体之家房间里告诉路透社记者，“我想念他一直跟我打招呼的样子。”
普林斯顿大学研究员菲利普·康纳对美国人口普查数据的分析显示，截至去年，在美国持有临时保护身份的33万海地人中，约2.1万人从事护工和护理助理工作，服务约7.7万名患者。
他们突然被逐出医疗行业，给本已难以满足快速老龄化美国人群需求的医疗系统增添了额外压力，也让依赖他们的家庭措手不及。
里奇的母亲莎伦·罗森表示，塔西对她儿子来说“就像家人一样”，而儿子甚至没能和这位长期陪护道别。
“我为他和我的儿子心碎，”她说。
路透社无法联系到塔西，且由于其脆弱的法律身份，报道中仅使用他的名字。
贾沃尼奥上月被迫解雇了近24名海地员工，占员工总数的7%。其中大多数人以每小时约20美元的薪酬为残疾患者提供全天候护理，仅比纽约州最低工资高出几美元。
“这些是最难填补的岗位之一，”贾沃尼奥首席执行官兰迪·里奥斯特罗在回复路透社电子邮件提问时表示。
“这从来不只是一个移民问题，”她在谈及终止临时保护身份的决定时写道，“对我们和我们的国家来说，这是一个医疗劳动力问题。”
“患者护理质量下滑”
美国在2010年毁灭性地震后向海地人提供了人道主义保护。
特朗普政府以海地局势改善为由终止该计划，尽管该国仍是西半球最不稳定的国家之一。
海地自2016年以来未曾举行选举；上一任总统于2021年遇刺身亡。
帮派暴力席卷首都。联合国去年表示，有140万人流离失所，约六成民众生活在贫困中。
如今无法在美国合法工作的前临时保护身份持有者，可以自愿返回海地——或试图留在美国，面临被捕和驱逐的风险。
纽约州的海地临时保护身份持有者数量仅次于佛罗里达州，而佛罗里达州是美国最受欢迎的养老目的地之一。
在临时保护身份到期前几周，佛罗里达州医疗协会首席执行官埃米特·里德致函国土安全部部长马克韦恩·马伦，敦促他考虑为长期护工豁免政策。
“佛罗里达州拥有全美规模最大且增长最快的老年人口群体之一，长期护理服务的需求每年都在增加，”里德在信中写道。
海地护工的流失可能引发“连锁反应，压倒当地医院和整个医疗系统”，他补充道。
纽约州护士协会主席南希·哈根斯童年时从海地移民美国，目前在布鲁克林的一家医院工作。在8月5日于迈蒙尼德斯医疗中心外举行的抗议人员短缺守夜活动中，她将终止临时保护身份的影响比作新冠疫情期间的劳动力缺口。
“当医护人员害怕上班时，患者的护理质量就会下滑，”哈根斯告诉人群。
在回应路透社的提问时，国土安全部称，声称医疗行业依赖移民“极其虚假且懒惰”，并补充道“长期以来，临时保护身份一直被当作事实上的特赦计划运作”。
贾沃尼奥已向代表纽约州哈德逊河谷下游洛克兰县的共和党国会议员马克·劳勒求助，该地区估计有1.1万海地人。
尽管劳勒支持特朗普及其强硬移民议程，但他在11月的中期选举中面临激烈竞争，此前他反对剥夺海地人的保护身份。
他的办公室表示，他正与贾沃尼奥和其他当地团体合作，为海地临时保护身份持有者寻找其他合法身份途径。
“失去这些经验丰富的工人，给本已面临人员短缺的服务机构带来了实实在在的用工挑战，也有可能打乱弱势居民的护理安排，”劳勒的发言人卡罗琳·亨特在给路透社的电子邮件中写道。
家庭成员顶班
在洛克兰县的集体之家，员工们在塔西和另一位前海地护工马克离职后，不得不加班顶班。
对罗森一家来说，这次损失切身相关。
77岁的莎伦表示，她曾告诉儿子塔西可能会因为新的移民政策离开，但她没想到这会在一夜之间发生。
如今，她和81岁的丈夫正试图填补空缺，包括开车送儿子去他在附近一家杂货店的工作岗位。
当被问及得知护工离开的那一刻时，罗森不愿多谈。
“我希望有一天能再见到他，”他说。
玛丽亚·茨韦特科娃报道；杰西·梅斯纳-哈奇与奥罗拉·埃利斯编辑
US families, healthcare providers under strain after Trump crackdown on Haitian immigrants
2026-08-19T10:04:42.669Z / reuters.com
- About 21,000 Haitian TPS holders worked in the U.S. as caregivers, serving roughly 77,000 patients
- New York non-profit Jawonio cut 7% of staff after protections ended, hitting hard-to-fill disability support roles
- Florida appealed to DHS for exemptions for long-term Haitian caregivers
NEW CITY, New York, Aug 19 (Reuters) – Richie Rosen, 43, was born with a rare genetic condition called Williams syndrome. His hands are weak and unreliable. He longs for human connection but gets anxious in social situations and is easily upset.
For four years, a Haitian caregiver named Tassy helped him navigate day-to-day life at a group home for developmentally disabled men in upstate New York – cooking for him, driving him around and making difficult chores more manageable.
But on July 27, Jawonio, the nonprofit that runs the facility, terminated Tassy’s contract after the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for Haitians and the work authorization that came with it.
“I miss him a lot,” Rosen told Reuters last week, sitting in his room at the home in Rockland County, a leafy suburb north of New York City. “I miss him just saying hi to me all the time.”
Around 21,000 of the 330,000 Haitians in the United States under TPS worked as caregivers and nursing assistants as of last year, serving around 77,000 patients, according to an analysis of U.S. census data by Philip Connor, a research fellow at Princeton University.
Their abrupt removal from the healthcare industry has placed additional strain on a system already struggling to meet the needs of the fast-aging U.S. population. It also came as a shock to families that relied on them.
Richie’s mother, Sharon Rosen, said Tassy was “like family” to her son, who never got the chance to say goodbye to his longtime aide.
“My heart is breaking for him and for my son,” she said.
Reuters was unable to reach Tassy for this story and is using only his first name due to his vulnerable legal status.
Jawonio was forced to lay off nearly two dozen Haitians last month, totaling 7% of its staff. Most of those affected provided round-the-clock care for disabled patients for around $20 per hour, just a few dollars above New York’s minimum wage.
“These are among the most difficult positions to fill,” Jawonio’s CEO, Randi Rios-Castro, told Reuters in response to emailed questions.
“This has never been just an immigration issue,” she wrote of the decision to end TPS. “It is a healthcare workforce issue for us and our country.”
‘PATIENT CARE SUFFERS’
The United States granted humanitarian protection to Haitians following a devastating earthquake in 2010.
The Trump administration cited improving conditions in Haiti as a reason for ending the program, though the country remains among the most unstable in the Western Hemisphere.
Haiti has not held elections since 2016; its last president was assassinated in 2021.
Gang violence has convulsed the capital. 1.4 million people are displaced from their homes, the U.N. said last year, and about 6 in 10 live in poverty.
No longer able to legally work in the United States, former TPS holders can now return to Haiti voluntarily — or try to stay in the U.S. and risk arrest and deportation.
New York state had the second-largest number of Haitian TPS holders after Florida, one of the country’s most popular retirement destinations.
Weeks before TPS was set to expire, Emmett Reed, CEO of the Florida Health Care Association, sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin urging him to consider an exemption for long-term caregivers.
“Florida is home to one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing older adult populations, and demand for long-term care services continues to increase each year,” Reed wrote in the letter.
The loss of Haitian workers risked “causing a ripple effect that could overwhelm our local hospitals and the entire healthcare system,” he continued.
Nancy Hagans, president of the New York State Nurses Association, moved to the U.S. from Haiti as a child and works at a hospital in Brooklyn. At an August 5 vigil held outside Maimonides Medical Center to protest staffing shortages, she compared the impact of ending TPS to the workforce deficit during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When healthcare workers live in fear of going to work, patient care suffers,” Hagans told the crowd.
Responding to questions from Reuters, the Department of Homeland Security said it was “grossly false and lazy” to assert the healthcare industry relied on immigrants, adding that “for too long, TPS has been allowed to function as a de facto amnesty program.”
Jawonio has appealed for help to Republican Congressman Mark Lawler, who represents Rockland County in New York’s lower Hudson Valley, home to an estimated 11,000 Haitians.
Lawler, facing a competitive race in November’s midterm elections, has opposed stripping Haitians of protections despite being a backer of Trump and his hardline immigration agenda.
His office said he is working with Jawonio and other local groups to find alternative legal statuses for Haitian TPS holders.
“Losing these experienced workers creates real staffing challenges for providers who were already facing shortages and risks disrupting care for vulnerable residents,” Lawler’s spokeswoman Caroline Hunt wrote in an email to Reuters.
FAMILY FILLS IN
At the group home in Rockland County, staffers are picking up extra shifts after the departures of Tassy and Marc, another former Haitian caregiver.
For the Rosens, the loss feels personal.
Sharon, 77, said she told her son that Tassy might have to leave because of new immigration policies. But she didn’t expect it to happen overnight.
Now, she and her 81-year-old husband are trying to help fill the gaps, including driving him to his job at a nearby grocery store.
Rosen, asked to recall the moment he learned his aide was gone, didn’t want to discuss it.
“I hope one day I can see him again,” he said.
Reporting by Maria Tsvetkova; Editing by Jesse Mesner-Hage and Aurora Ellis
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