The country’s already-strained medical system could lose tens of thousands of much-needed workers if the Supreme Court agrees to end the Obama-era program shielding from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.
Immigrants make up a disproportionate share of nurses, home health aides and health-care facility workers – and they include many of the 700,000 immigrants allowed to stay in the United States under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
About 27,000 of these “dreamers,” as DACA enrollees are known, work in health care provider and support occupations, according to an analysis of census data by the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Another 200 dreamers are in medical school or participating in residencies.
These immigrants – and others – play an increasingly important role as the demand for health care workers skyrockets.
Yet their status has been threatened since Trump in 2017 sought to end the program that allows participants to work legally and renew their two-year protection from deportation. It’s open to those who were brought into the country before age 16 and have lived here at least five years. The Trump administration defended its move before the nine justices yesterday in oral arguments, during which the court’s conservative majority appeared sympathetic to the case presented by Solicitor General Noel Francisco.
Francisco told the court that the administration has decided DACA should end regardless of whether it’s legal. He also disputed lower-court opinions finding Trump’s decision to terminate the program was based on a faulty belief that the program was legally and constitutionally defective and that the administration has failed to provide sufficient justification for ending it.
“The Trump administration, which usually argues for broad executive power, in this case is arguing that the program is flawed and could not be defended against challenges from states that want to end it,” The Washington Post reported.
In the meantime, health care jobs – particularly those involving elder care – areprojected to grow exponentially in coming years as baby boomers grow older. The Institute of Medicine has projected that 3.5 million more health care workers will be needed by 2030. The country could have a shortage of as many as 122,000 physicians by 2032.
The American Medical Association noted the challenge in a statement yesterday supporting DACA.
“Our health care workforce, including physicians, nurses, physician assistants and home health aides, is bolstered by providers with DACA status,” AMA President Patrice Harris wrote. “During their careers, these providers will care for and improve the lives of millions of Americans.”
The contribution of immigrants is most pronounced in the area of home health care, in which employment of in-home aides and personal care aides is projected to grow 36 percent from 2018 to 2028. Nearly 1 in 3 of these types of workers are immigrants, according to the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute.
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