Chorus Nylander
•9/9/2026
NAPLES, Fla. (WINK) — Healthcare providers and community advocates across Southwest Florida are raising alarms over a growing labor shortage in senior care facilities following the loss of legal work authorization for thousands of Haitian immigrants.
The crunch follows a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a humanitarian framework originally extended to Haitian nationals following the devastating 2010 earthquake. The end of the program has stripped work permits from thousands of long-standing care workers, forcing nursing homes and assisted living facilities across Florida to balance strict regulatory compliance against a dwindling pool of qualified staff.
Florida is home to one of the nation's largest Haitian populations, with a significant concentration employed in direct patient care as certified nursing assistants (CNAs) and licensed practical nurses (LPNs). Statewide estimates show that out of approximately 35,000 Haitian healthcare employees, roughly 4,000 nursing assistants lost their right to work due to the TPS expiration.
Beatrice Jaquette Caster, co-founder and president of the Haitian American Community Coalition of Southwest Florida, said the fallout is already reverberating through emergency rooms, medical offices, and long-term care facilities.
"Right now, there has been a lot of changes concerning immigration that's hitting the whole United States, including Southwest Florida," Jaquette Caster said. "Healthcare workers are a major one. Now you're going to see a long line going to the doctor's office, going to the emergency room… even being admitted because a lot of the jobs were held by Haitian descendants."
For Jaquette Caster, the crisis is personal. Her aunt currently resides in a local nursing home that she says is struggling to maintain proper staffing levels after being forced to release workers whose employment authorization expired.
"She's not going to get the care that she deserves because right now they're understaffed," Jaquette Caster added. "All nursing homes are understaffed currently because they had to let CNA workers go."
legal and industry experts warn that losing experienced bedside staff exacerbates chronic workforce shortages that have plagued long-term care facilities for decades.
John Herskowitz, a Miami-based trial attorney who has spent 30 years litigating nursing home neglect cases, noted that stripping thousands of workers from an already fragile system directly impacts basic resident care.
"Out of the 35,000 Haitian employees, about 4,000 are nursing assistants. So you have an industry that's already struggling to provide enough hands-on care to the most vulnerable people in our state... What's going to happen? It's going to be fewer baths, less medication, less meals, less people assisting with transfers, and certainly less supervision."
Herskowitz, whose own mother lived in an assisted living facility, emphasized that understaffing frequently leads to severe outcomes, including unaddressed bedsores, missed medications, and unassisted falls.
"Where I have litigated and tried nursing home cases for over 30 years, you never fully experience what the residents and the residents' families go through until you live it yourself," Herskowitz said. "Here I am. This is what I do for a living, yet I am still fighting these battles."
At Moorings Park, a non-profit life plan community in Naples, Florida, executive leadership has felt the attrition firsthand. President and CEO Dan Lavender reported that the community lost 25 employees over two years as a direct result of the TPS revocations—18 in 2025 prior to the high court's ruling, and seven more after the decision took effect this year.
"On a moral and personal impact, it's been devastating," Lavender said, noting that Moorings Park employs roughly 200 Haitian staff members across its campuses. "I've had multiple calls from residents who finally got a caregiver that was working with them on a regular basis that had developed a relationship with. Since we have around 200 Haitian employees, you can imagine the impact it has on them as well."
To mitigate losses, Moorings Park has assisted eligible employees in transitioning to alternative legal immigration statuses, while also investing in workforce housing initiatives to attract and retain local talent. While the facility has successfully filled its immediate vacancies, Lavender identified finding and keeping qualified, compassionate care staff in high-cost Southwest Florida as the organization's primary strategic hurdle over the next five years.
The workforce reduction has sparked a broader debate over federal immigration policy and labor solutions.
Appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who is running for Florida governor, argued that border security and domestic labor programs must take precedence over temporary relief measures.
"What we want to do is number one, make sure our kids coming out of high school are having internships and apprenticeships and the necessary workforce training... You cannot let the borders of our country be blown wide open and then talk about 'we need people in this field or that field' and not actually have consistent immigration policy."
Donalds pointed to state-level career training initiatives and adult re-education programs as the proper long-term solution to replenish Florida's healthcare labor pipeline.
Conversely, community advocates argue that terminating status for long-term residents creates an immediate humanitarian crisis. Jaquette Caster stressed that ongoing political instability and gang violence in Haiti make returning unsafe for former permit holders, while removing them from their jobs disrupts American families and essential local services.
"It's very personal, and it should be personal for each and every American, because this is not only affecting nursing homes; it's affecting our lives," Jaquette Caster said. "We're tearing families apart. We're tearing children with their parents, fathers with the mothers with children. We're just tearing people apart."
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