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At 82, Rita Siebenaler has jumped into the fight over immigration.
The granddaughter of Irish immigrants, Siebenaler has long felt those who come to the U.S. in search of a better life deserve a chance, too.
“This is a way of paying back for that gift,” she says.
She’s seen their hard work up close. Siebenaler lives in an independent living facility in northern Virginia, part of the faith-based nonprofit Goodwin Living. Her late husband, a Russia specialist with the U.S. Army, spent his final days in the Alzheimer’s unit next door.
“He had caretakers from Ghana, Sierra Leone, Haiti,” she says. “And they gave him tender loving care.”
Among the team, she says, were individuals with Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, a special designation granted to immigrants already in the U.S. whose home countries the federal government deems unsafe to return to. People with TPS can stay and work in the country, but it is not a pathway to permanent residency or citizenship.
Now, as the Supreme Court considers a case with potential consequences for the more than 1 million TPS holders whose status the Trump administration has terminated or attempted to terminate, Siebenaler has found her voice.
On a rainy morning outside the U.S. Capitol this week, she spoke of the inevitable.
“As you age, in spite of your good habits, your bodies fail,” Siebenaler said, flanked by a couple dozen seniors in raincoats and ponchos, a few with their rolling walkers. “Some assistance, of course, comes from families. But often that assistance comes from the caretakers.”
With the U.S. population rapidly aging, the research and advocacy group PHI estimates the U.S. will need to fill close to 10 million caregiving jobs over the next decade. With such demand for caregivers, Siebenaler can’t see the logic in paring back the workforce.
“This has a tremendous impact on American seniors,” she says. “Hundreds of thousands turn 65 every year. Who’s going to care for them?”
The Supreme Court weighs whether Trump improperly ended TPS
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments over whether the Trump administration improperly terminated TPS for more than 300,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians.
TPS was first granted to Haitians who were already legally in the U.S. in 2010, when an earthquake left that country in ruins, and to Syrians in 2012 due to armed conflict amid civil war. The designations have since been renewed, multiple times.
The Trump administration has argued that TPS is supposed to be temporary, not a de facto amnesty program. In canceling TPS, former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem cited improved conditions in a number of countries, including Haiti, despite continued warnings from the State Department about ongoing threats.
The justices — whose average age is 65 — are weighing whether the administration followed proper procedures when it terminated TPS for Haitians and Syrians.
Siebenaler hopes they’ll also consider the human toll of forcing valuable workers out.
More than 20,000 Haitian TPS holders work as nursing assistants or caregivers, according to the immigration advocacy group FWD.us.
Across the country, more than a quarter of home health aides, personal care aides, and nursing assistants are immigrants — and their share is growing — according to PHI.
In her 16 years at Goodwin Living, where 40% of the staff are immigrants, Siebenaler has observed that those drawn to long-term care work often come from cultures where elders are revered, where caretaking is seen as noble.
“They’ve already been vetted and have work permits, and they ought to be allowed to continue,” she says. “We need them.”
Already, Goodwin Living has had to let some workers go. Four Haitian dining workers lost their work authorization after the Trump administration canceled a humanitarian parole program last year.
“Our kitchen serves a thousand meals a day. And all of a sudden, we lost two Haitian cooks and two kitchen utility workers,” says Siebenaler. “That really had an impact.”
Another three TPS holders from El Salvador likewise lost their authorization to work, according to Goodwin Living. The departures have sowed anxiety through the rest of the workforce.
A victory in the House
Outside the Capitol on Tuesday, Siebenaler was joined by Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, a Massachusetts Democrat, who earlier this month spearheaded passage of a bill to extend TPS for Haitians for three years.
Siebenaler was in the House for the 224 to 204 vote.
“It was thrilling,” she says.
Now the bill heads to the Senate, where it faces steep odds, given Republicans hold 53 seats and 60 votes are needed for passage.
For the moment, Siebenaler’s focus is on the Supreme Court.
“I’m concerned. I’m anxious. I hope the justices pull on the best legal precedents and do something really great for our Temporary Protected Status workers,” she says. “I’ll be saying prayers.”
