Deporting Dreamers may hit home health care especially hard

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

When the Trump administration announced Tuesday that it would end an Obama-era program that shielded young unauthorized immigrants from deportation, Sherwin Sheik quickly sized up the potential toll on his business.

Sheik is the chief executive and founder of CareLinx, which matches home care workers with patients and their families. The company relies heavily on authorized immigrant labor, making the looming demise of the program — which has transformed around 700,000 people brought to this country as children into authorized workers — a decidedly unwelcome development.

The move, Sheik said, would compound an already “disastrous situation in terms of shortages of supply.” He added, “This is a big issue we’re focusing on.”

Recalling the revolt among business executives that followed President Donald Trump’s refusal to single out white supremacists for causing violence last month in Charlottesville, Virginia, leaders of companies in the finance, manufacturing and technology industries, including Microsoft and JPMorgan Chase, have been quick to oppose the decision to end the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

Those executives may have empathy for the beneficiaries of the program, known as Dreamers, as well as a broader interest in more liberal immigration policies to satisfy their labor needs. But the practical effect on their businesses will typically be minimal. The number of workers who benefit from the program is tiny alongside a national labor force of more than 150 million, and the DACA workers are spread out relatively evenly across most industries.

In health care, on the other hand, the economic impact could be significant, depriving patients of help they depend on and driving up costs for families and taxpayers.

Surveys of DACA beneficiaries reveal that roughly one-fifth of them work in the health care and educational sector, suggesting a potential loss of tens of thousands of workers from in-demand job categories like home health aide and nursing assistant.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2017/09/06/deporting-dreamers-may-hit-home-health-care.html?ana=e_mc_prem&s=newsletter&ed=2017-09-07&u=ColXVN5SPzQtLHFP87ho2w07857290&t=1504803004&j=78793411

[Iliyah]

1. Republicans withg money don't care.

[MineralMan]

2. Yes. Anyone who has an aged parent in memory care or nursing care knows who is

delivering that care. My wife and I have spent the last two years watching that caregiving in assisted living, memory care, and finally, nursing home care for her late mother. The actual physical caregivers were almost all immigrants. Administrators were not, of course, but the hands-on people were all people of color with accents. We got to know many of them, since we were not people who simply left mom to whatever care she experienced. We were daily participants and guardians for her.

With few exceptions, the staff workers who actually did her care were conscientious and careful. And that was in four separate facilities over those two years. Underpaid, as well. We are grateful for their hard work in helping keep her comfortable and safe. I don't know who will provide such care if those people get deported.