The Trump administration’s efforts to strip protections from more than half a million legal immigrants could devastate the health sector, endangering care for the elderly and worsening rates of both chronic and infectious diseases.
Hundreds of thousands</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/workforce/114947","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50880000","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50880001","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Hundreds of thousands of health care workers, including an estimated 30,000</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.fwd.us/news/immigration-labor-shortages/","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50880002","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50880003","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>estimated 30,000 legal immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, are at risk of being deported — worrying providers and patients who rely on them for everything from nursing and physical therapy to maintenance, janitorial, foodservice and housekeeping work.
Goodwin Living, a faith-based, not-for-profit elder care complex just across the Potomac River from D.C., is poised to lose 65 staff members following Supreme Court rulings on Friday and earlier in May that gavethe Trump administration permission</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/30/supreme-court-trump-immigration-parole-00376419","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50880004","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50880005","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>the Trump administration permission to terminate humanitarian parole and temporary protected status</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/19/trump-supreme-court-tps-venezuela-00357143","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890000","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890001","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>temporary protected status issued by prior presidents to migrants from several countries plagued by poverty and violence.
“I just can’t even imagine the impact it would have on those of us that are cared for on a daily basis if we were to suddenly lose them,” said Jill Miller, who has resided at Goodwin Living for eight years with her husband Carl. “They’re the backbone.”
Goodwin is one of hundreds of long-term care facilities around the country that employ immigrants whose legal status will soon end, and its leaders have joined a chorus of providers from Florida to California warning that the Trump administration’s crackdown will decimate care capacity and facilitate the spread of communicable diseases, putting U.S. citizens at risk.
These vulnerabilities underscore the precarity of the nation’s patchwork immigration system. Immigrants — both documented and undocumented — make up a disproportionate share of the health care workforce, particularly in areas like long-term care for the elderly and people with disabilities, and their expulsion would make existing shortages much worse.
Yet Congress’ decades-long inability to enact permanent fixes has left millions dependent on executive actions and discretionary programs that can be upended every time a new administration takes power — a situation people on all sides of the immigration debate agree is unsustainable.
Even conservatives who favor President Donald Trump’s decision to end humanitarian parole and temporary protected status acknowledge that doing so could harm several sectors of the economy — including agriculture and construction in addition to health care — but they argue the Biden administration misused those programs as a backdoor means of ushering in more permanent migration.
“There are valid concerns, absolutely,” said Simon Hankinson, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation. “But the solution we need is for Congress to determine what level of immigration we need, what skill level we need, what the conditions are, and then to pass laws. You can’t just completely bypass Congress with executive action on immigration and expect this fragile edifice that we set up to survive.”
The administration, meanwhile, dismisses the health industry’s concerns.
“The assertion that the only way we can take care of our seniors is by allowing unvetted illegal aliens and foreigners with criminal records to remain in the country is grossly false and lazy,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to POLITICO. “If people want to come to our country to be caregivers for our seniors, they need to do that by coming here the legal way.”
When asked specifically about workers with temporary protected status and humanitarian parole — who entered the country legally after being vetted and sponsored — the agency did not respond. Past presidents have extended legal protections and work permits to hundreds of thousands of immigrants under those programs because they face dangerous conditions in their home countries.
The Trump administration is simultaneously ramping up enforcement, including in formerly off-limits spaces like hospitals and clinics. That’s causing immigrants and their citizen relatives to avoid all kinds of medical care</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/health/migrants-health-care-trump.html","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890002","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890003","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>all kinds of medical care — from testing and treatment for infectious diseases to preventive care for chronic conditions like diabetes, driving up costs for taxpayers and threatening public health more broadly.
“If they’re afraid to even go to work or send their kids to school, they’re certainly afraid to come to doctors’ visits,” said Sandy Reding, an emergency room nurse in Bakersfield and the president of the California Nurses Association. “They’re not seeking medical attention when they should, and we’re seeing time and time again that those delays in care are making things worse.”
Reding said an uptick in Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity targeting her area’s large population of migrant farmworkers has caused many to avoid care for conditions like diabetes and elevated blood pressure — leading to preventable amputations or strokes.
“And when it comes to things like measles and bird flu that are easily spread, it poses a threat to the whole community,” she said.
‘The quality of care will be poor’
A study published in the medical journal JAMA</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.medpagetoday.com/publichealthpolicy/workforce/114947","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890004","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890005","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>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. And no sector of the sprawling health care system would be harder hit by mass deportations than long-term care for the elderly and people with disabilities — where immigrants make up nearly 30 percent</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/what-role-do-immigrants-play-in-the-direct-long-term-care-workforce","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890006","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890007","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>nearly 30 percent of the direct care workforce.
In an amicus brief</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69695790/50/doe-v-noem/","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890008","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890009","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>an amicus brief opposing the Trump administration’s bid to cancel humanitarian parole for half a million workers, the attorneys general for 15 states and Washington, D.C. noted that immigrants make up more than three quarters of home health aides in New York and nearly half in California.
On Friday, the Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light to begin deporting about a half-million immigrants who entered the U.S. legally under humanitarian parole programs implemented during the Biden administration. The decision came less than two weeks after the justices granted another immigration-related emergency request from the administration, allowing officials to end temporary protected status for approximately 350,000 Venezuelans.
Given already severe shortages of workers for typically low-paid and challenging care economy jobs, and a looming spike in demand for long-term care services as Baby Boomers age, the elder care industry is warning of an impending crisis.
Rob Liebreich, the CEO of Goodwin Living, worries he may have to accept fewer residents and cut back services if his workers are deported. Reducing the supply of long-term care workers amid increasing demand will also drive up the cost of services as facilities compete for those who remain, he said. That, in turn, could force more aging Americans to depend on untrained family members as caregivers, which then pulls those people out of the paid workforce.
“It’ll be a real drain on the overall economy,” he said. “But more importantly, I just don’t want to let down the current American older adult population, and we’re absolutely going to let them down by not having enough hands to provide the services and support that they deserve and expect.”
LeadingAge — an advocacy group representing thousands of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, hospice programs and retirement homes around the country — echoed Liebreich’s fears in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://leadingage.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/LeadingAge-to-DHS-re-TPS-and-Parole-4.30.25.pdf","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee5089000c","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee5089000d","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”> to the Department of Homeland Security in April, pleading with the agency to reconsider ending the parole program. They did not receive a response.
The Trump administration acknowledged some of these concerns</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/03/25/2025-05128/termination-of-parole-processes-for-cubans-haitians-nicaraguans-and-venezuelans","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee5089000e","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee5089000f","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>acknowledged some of these concerns in its March executive order canceling humanitarian parole for hundreds of thousands of immigrants, noting that there will be repercussions both for the individuals and their employers. Still, the order argued, both the immigrants and their employers knew that the protections were temporary and subject to the discretion of the federal government, and they should have applied for more permanent status.
Liebreich said that while Goodwin has helped over 200 workers become citizens over the past decade and has set up the 65 currently at risk to meet with immigration attorneys, the Trump administration is closing off many of the other programs they would have been eligible for — like temporary protected status</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/12/temporary-protected-status-afghans-00342250","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890010","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890011","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>emporary protected status — and not giving them enough time to navigate the process.
“They thought they had two years to work with, not mere months,” he said.
Saudatu Savage, a registered nurse at Goodwin Living who came as a refugee from Sierra Leone more than two decades ago and is now a U.S. citizen, said it will make her job much harder if dozens of her coworkers are forced to leave.
“It’s going to be a disaster,” she said. “There are not a lot of nurses out there, and there are going to be more and more patients. So it will be a burden on us and it’s going to affect the whole health care system, and I fear the quality of care will be poor.”
With the workers’ status in limbo, even some staunch conservatives are warning of negative ramifications of the administration’s crackdown, and are calling instead for an increase in visas for immigrants to work in health care.
“You can’t just do across-the-board reductions and not have real challenges in areas where vital workers exist, especially in health care,” said Tom Price, a former GOP congressman who served as the health secretary during Trump’s first term and now works as a consultant. “If you just have across-the-board reductions, it will harm our ability to continue to provide care for folks at all different levels, whether it’s acute or chronic care.”
‘Measles doesn’t care about your immigration status’
When measles erupted among children in Minneapolis’ large Somali community in May 2024, the city contracted with groups that work with the area’s Somali, Hmong, Latin American and Native American populations, set up free vaccine clinics in their neighborhoods run by trusted community groups, deployed contact tracers, and produced videos</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=im4UNth_s0c","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890012","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890013","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>produced videos in multiple languages urging vaccinations.
A few months later, after identifying 52 cases and hospitalizing 12 people, they had it under control</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/measles/update.html","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890014","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890015","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>had it under control.
But local officials fear that now, amid the biggest measles outbreak</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.politico.com/news/2025/05/09/measles-hits-1000-cases-for-the-second-time-in-30-years-00337905","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890017","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee50890018","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>the biggest measles outbreak the U.S. has seen in decades, including a few cases in Minnesota</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.fox9.com/news/minnesota-reports-2nd-measles-case-health-officials-urge-vaccinations","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0000","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0001","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>cases in Minnesota, they may not be as successful.
Health care providers in Minneapolis and around the country</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/10/nx-s1-5290063/migrants-chicago-delayed-health-care-immigration-crackdown-fears","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0002","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0003","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>around the country are reporting that since Trump took office and changed federal policy</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.dhs.gov/news/2025/01/21/statement-dhs-spokesperson-directives-expanding-law-enforcement-and-ending-abuse","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0004","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0005","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>changed federal policy to allow immigration enforcement agents to detain people in hospitals and clinics, immigrants with and without documents are avoiding health services</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/health/migrants-health-care-trump.html","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0006","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0007","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>avoiding health services, including testing and treatment for infectious diseases and vaccinations.
“When people feel threatened, there’s a chilling effect,” said Michelle Rivero, the director of the city’s Office of Immigration and Refugee Affairs, which was founded during the first Trump administration. “There is a greater sense of fear and anxiety with regard to accessing health care.”
That chilling effect will be compounded, local officials warn, by the Trump administration’s cuts to public health funding, which have forced the Minneapolis Public Health Department to shut down several vaccine clinics</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/04/10/minneapolis-health-officials-cancel-vaccine-clinics-after-loss-of-federal-funding","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0008","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0009","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>shut down several vaccine clinics, lay off 170 staff members</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/04/01/minnesota-department-of-health-announces-layoffs","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a000b","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a000c","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>lay off 170 staff members and end contracts with three community health organizations that were crucial in halting the 2024 measles outbreak: MHealth Fairview, Odam Medical Clinic, and Neighborhood HealthSource.
The administration argued the funding</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-pulling-back-11b-covid-funding-sent-health-departments-us-rcna198006","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a000d","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a000e","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>argued the funding should be cut because Congress had appropriated it to combat Covid-19 and the pandemic is over — though health departments around the country had been using the money to shore up defenses against other infectious diseases. Though a judge blocked the cuts</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/16/us/politics/judge-covid-public-health-cuts.html","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a000f","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0010","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>blocked the cuts from taking effect, that ruling could be overturned on appeal.
At a time when immigrant groups’ already high distrust of government is even higher due to fears of immigration enforcement, said Deputy Health Commissioner Heidi Ritchie, public health departments won’t be successful if they can’t contract with non-governmental community groups to do outreach and provide services.
“With the loss of those contracts, we can’t be confident that we’re able to serve a population when there’s another measles outbreak,” she said. “Measles doesn’t care about your immigration status or your ethnicity. But when we are providing these clinics, they’re free, and they are in community spaces that people already have trust with.”
Under pressure from the Trump administration, several states including Minnesota</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://sahanjournal.com/democracy-politics/gov-tim-walz-minnesota-lawmakers-rollback-state-healthcare-for-undocumented-adults/","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0011","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0012","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>including Minnesota and California</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://calmatters.org/health/2025/05/newsom-freeze-medi-cal-undocumented-immigrants/","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0013","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0014","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>and California are also rolling back programs that provide health insurance to undocumented immigrants, putting testing and treatment for infectious diseases further out of reach.
In addition to measles, public health leaders are concerned about the impact of Trump’s immigration policies on efforts to combat tuberculosis — a bacterial infection the U.S. nearly eradicated decades ago that is now resurging from Kansas City</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2025-01-27/kansas-says-tuberculosis-outbreak-is-largest-in-recorded-u-s-history-what-to-know","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0015","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0016","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Kansas City to Los Angeles</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://laist.com/news/health/tb-cases-in-la-county-are-rising","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0017","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0018","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>Los Angeles.
“People are, all of a sudden, a little bit leery of presenting themselves in congregate settings where they might be targets for enforcement,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. “It really is emanating out of a greater fear of those places being actively monitored by ICE.”
The Trump administration</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-title-42-migrants-documents/","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a0019","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a001a","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>The Trump administration and advocacy groups that want to restrict immigration</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://www.fairus.org/issue/tuberculosis-mass-migration-drives-its-prevalence-united-states","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a001b","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a001c","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>advocacy groups that want to restrict immigration say higher levels of tuberculosis in immigrant communities justifies turning people away at the border. But Freeman and other experts stress that while the infections are more prevalent in those communities, it has nothing to do with their country of origin and everything to do with crowded living conditions and a lack of access to vaccines, which is why TB outbreaks are also common in U.S. homeless shelters and prisons. By implementing policies that deter immigrants from seeking health services, she argued, the Trump administration could make the situation worse.
“We are worried, from a public health standpoint, that people will tie tuberculosis outbreaks to immigrant communities unfairly and traumatize those groups even more,” Freeman said. “We were fearful that it might be used by the administration to say, ‘This is a disease they bring in. We’ve got to get them out of the country.’”
To reach those fearful of coming in for services, some public health departments are ramping up telehealth services, while others are creating mobile units so that immigrants don’t have to leave their neighborhoods. Still others are posting know-your-rights information in multiple languages for their patients, and coaching providers on what to do</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/california-health-clinics-immigration-raids-trump-constitutional-rights/","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a001d","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508a001e","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>coaching providers on what to do in the event of a raid.
“Our union has trained us on what to do if ICE comes into our hospitals,” said the California Nurses Association’s Reding. “We’ve always been patient advocates but right now the need for that is even stronger.”
Yet both research and anecdotal reports suggest that the health care repercussions of restrictive immigration policies can extend beyond their target populations and linger long after the policies themselves are lifted.
A 2021 study</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/our-work/publications/one-4-low-income-immigrant-adults-california-avoided-public-benefit-programs-likely-worsening-food","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508b0000","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508b0001","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>A 2021 study found that the “public charge” rule in the first Trump administration — which penalized legal immigrants who used government safety net programs — led many low-income immigrants to avoid using health services, including more than a quarter of legal permanent residents, who were not subject to the rule. The chilling effect began years before the policy took effect, fueled by rhetoric from federal government officials, researchers found</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/2023-05/publiccharge-policybrief-mar2021_1.pdf","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508b0002","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508b0003","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>researchers found.
Another study, published in 2022</u>","link":{"target":"NEW","attributes":[],"url":"https://healthpolicy.ucla.edu/our-work/publications/avoiding-medicaid-enrollment-after-reversal-changes-public-charge-rule-among-latino-and-asian","_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508b0004","_type":"33ac701a-72c1-316a-a3a5-13918cf384df"},"_id":"00000197-2720-d21b-a7b7-7fee508b0005","_type":"02ec1f82-5e56-3b8c-af6e-6fc7c8772266"}”>published in 2022, found that legal immigrants without green cards were still avoiding care more than a year after President Joe Biden got rid of the rule.
“We’ve created fear and distrust of the health care system in the immigrant community even without enforcement,” said Arturo Vargas Bustamante, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. “This has big implications, including for mixed status households and U.S. citizen children, and it could be both costly and fatal.”