Immigrant Caregivers and Elderly Americans

The Trump administration's efforts to deport millions of both legal and illegal immigrants will severely worsen the United State's nursing and caregiver shortage.

Whitney Curry Wimbish wrote in an article for American Prospect (https://prospect.org/2025/08/07/2025-08-07-mass-deportations-worsening-…):

"For years, the direct care industry, which provides home and community-based services for the elderly and people with disabilities, has struggled to hire and retain workers, and drew heavily from documented and undocumented immigrants. But now, thanks to President Trump’s racist regime and mass deportations, that workforce will shrink even more, just as American society is rapidly aging.

For the next five years, 10,000 people will turn 65 years old every day, according to AARP. By 2040, the number of people aged 80 to 85, who are the likeliest to need direct care, will reach 14 million, a 111 percent increase from 2022, according to federal data. If Trump’s deportation policies stand, there won’t be enough caregivers to meet the demand for help."

An article by Alice Miranda Ollstein for Politico (https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/31/they-are-the-backbone-trumps-t…) cited a study published in the medical journal JAMA in April calculated that about a million non-citizen immigrants work in health care, including more than 366,500 who are undocumented. Long term care for the elderly and for people with disabilities will be especially hard hit by mass deportations — where immigrants make up nearly 30 percent of the direct care workforce.

REFERENCES
"Mass Deportations Are Worsening the Caregiving Crisis. The loss of staff in the direct care industry threatens the lives of the elderly and people with disabilities." by Whitney Curry Wimbish for The American Prospect
https://prospect.org/2025/08/07/2025-08-07-mass-deportations-worsening-…

"Trump’s deportation plans threaten 400,000 direct care jobs. Older adults and people with disabilities could lose vital in-home support" by Ben Zipperer for the Economic Policy Institute
https://www.epi.org/blog/trumps-deportation-plans-threaten-400000-direc…

"Trump’s Immigration Crackdown Hits Senior Care Work Force. Nursing homes and home care agencies have lost workers as the Trump administration has moved to end deportation protections for migrants with temporary legal status." by Madeleine Ngo for The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/18/us/politics/immigration-senior-careg…

"Immigration and Caregiving: Who Will Care for Aging Boomers?" by Harry S. Margolis for the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College
https://crr.bc.edu/immigration-and-caregiving-who-will-care-for-aging-b…

"Nursing homes face 2 threats: Trump's Medicaid cuts and his immigration crackdown" by Jordan Rau for NPR
https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/06/26/nx-s1-5443988…

"What Role Do Immigrants Play in The Direct Long-Term Care Workforce?" by Priya Chidambaram and Drishti Pillai for KFF
https://www.kff.org/medicaid/what-role-do-immigrants-play-in-the-direct…

"Nursing homes across America are struggling with staff shortages due to immigration crackdowns" by The Milwaukee Independent
https://www.milwaukeeindependent.com/newswire/nursing-homes-across-amer…

A youtube video by the Asian American / Asian Research Institute (AAARI) on the importance of Filipina Care Workers in the San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4F_rO6N2eM