"I love my work, and I love my residents. I know my coworkers, and we do the very best we can. But we could do so much more if we weren’t repeatedly fighting for the fair wages and benefits needed to recruit staff and keep them from leaving.

And now, since the Republicans took over in Washington DC, we’re facing a brand-new threat to our residents and our jobs. Over the past few weeks, management has taken 21 of my co-workers off the schedule because their immigration status was suddenly revoked. This is a huge blow. As CNAs, we are already working short, especially on the weekends. We often have to work double shifts.

Even the human resources department was against it, but said they were following orders from their corporate office. The CNAs who were removed from the schedule were immigrants from Haiti who were entitled to live in the US under the rules that had been in place before. They were good workers."

My co-workers and I are devastated by this. Our residents are mostly elderly, and it is hard for them to build a rapport with the CNAs as it is. If someone new suddenly takes over it often makes "them feel scared and nervous. The change can end up disturbing their treatment plan. For instance, they may stop eating properly.

This goes way beyond the workers themselves. It will affect their families, their children, their whole households. Many CNAs who work here are the sole breadwinners. I can imagine that some of the Haitian members were sending money back home too.

I can’t believe this is happening. It just doesn’t feel right. I’m having trouble eating and sleeping myself, knowing this is happening to other families."

"The politicians are trying to get us to believe that it is immigrants who are making it harder for the rest of us to afford housing, groceries, healthcare and the like. But we know that’s not true. My co-workers who have lost their jobs for political reasons were hard workers. They contributed to the institution and paid taxes. It is the wealthy people who are getting huge tax breaks from the current administration we have to worry about. We know that we’re going to face overwhelming cuts to Medicaid funding to pay for these unjust tax breaks."

The reason the CNAs at Stewart’s workplace were eligible to stay in the US in the first place was because of humanitarian programs for immigrants from certain countries identified by the State Department. These countries, including Haiti, are experiencing so much violence and disorder that it is considered too dangerous for people who enter the US from there to return home. One program is called Temporary Protected Status (TPS) which applies to 15 countries at the moment, but
the Republicans are pushing hard to cut it back. The other is called humanitarian parole for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV). The second program has been taken away altogether.