Image source, Linda MancusoImage caption, Long Island mother-of-two Linda Mancuso's disabled son Michael, 23, lost a Haitian aide his mother considers a "lifeline"
BySheila FlynnSenior US Reporter- Published16 minutes ago
Long Island mother-of-two Linda Mancuso has been "praying on a daily basis" that her disabled son's Haitian caregiver will be able to come back to work.
It was "horrifying," she says, when Jean, who had a temporary work permit, was laid off from work at the end of July from his position at a nonprofit supporting individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. Her son Michael is a 5ft 10in, nonverbal 23-year-old.
"Showering, sleeping, eating, tying his shoes - Michael can't tie his shoes - I mean, there's so much hands-on involvement, and Jean did all of that," she says.
Mancuso was a ball of nerves when she finally agreed to send Michael to residential care, at the age of 19, calling it "the hardest thing I've ever had to do".
When he met Jean in the adult home, however, she felt a sense of peace.
"Certain people just have it," she says of Jean. "He's literally a lifeline."
But Michael lost that lifeline weeks ago, when his employer had to lay Jean off along with 18 other Haitians.
Their temporary protected status (TPS) - which allows eligible foreign nationals from unsafe countries to work in the US - had expired.
The Trump administration first announced in June 2025 that it would be removing the TPS for Haitians, and the ensuing legal battle went all the way to the Supreme Court.
But America's top judges ruled in favour of the administration, paving the way for 350,000 Haitians to lose their status at the end of July.
The stripping of that status meant that holders can no longer legally work in the US and are at risk of deportation.
The healthcare industry, with a robust Haitian workforce, has been hit particularly hard - with legions of employers forced to fire TPS holders who work directly with patients.
Trump cancelled TPS amid a wave of measures restricting immigration, a central plank of his successful 2024 election campaign.
Immigration was one of the top concerns for voters in that election and, in Long Island, both counties decisively backed Trump.
More than a dozen countries have had their TPS terminated in Trump's second term and Haitians make up nearly a third of all TPS recipients affected.
The care industry is feeling the effects.
Haiti numbers among the top five countries from which immigrants in the direct-care workforce come, says Kezia Scales, vice-president of policy and research at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute.
The industry was already under-staffed and waitlists for many care services - from home health aides to assisted living - were already long.
"We simply do not have enough people in our domestic market, when you exclude immigrants, to fill those jobs," she tells BBC News.
National advocacy groups are campaigning for policies that would strengthen the long-term workforce - including ones that "would expand legal pathways for international caregivers".
When asked about the impact of TPS termination, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told the BBC that "Temporary Protected Status is exactly that - temporary".
"The assertion that the only way we can support the healthcare industry is by allowing unvetted illegal aliens to remain in the country is grossly false and lazy," the spokesperson said.
Image source, ReutersImage caption, An activist waves a Haitian flag in New York during an August march in support of Temporary Protected Status for Haitians
At AHRC Nassau, which employed Jean, CEO Stanfort Perry sounds exasperated and exhausted. The organisation let go of 19 Haitian staff this year and 22 last year, amidst other immigration crackdowns, he says.
"It takes us months to recruit one individual to work in this field, train them and prepare them to provide compassionate, caring support to a person with an intellectual and developmental disability," he says.
"I'm competing with fast-food restaurants, grocery stores and retail for staff, because they pay more than what we are able to pay," he adds.
Image source, Linda MancusoImage caption, Michael, second from left, is 5'10, 200-plus pounds and nonverbal, needing 24/7 care
It's an issue across the country. At Jewish Community Services of South Florida, which lost 18 Haitian TPS holders, the remaining aides are also working overtime.
"That is a huge financial strain on a nonprofit like us," says Sarah Katzenstein, the organisation's director of strategic communications and marketing.
The loss of TPS caregivers has been especially damaging to seniors served by the Jewish organisation, as many of them are Holocaust survivors, says Katzenstein.
"They had relationships with these home care aides for years - some of them for decades," she says, adding that Holocaust survivors especially can have difficulty trusting strangers.
"It's a very intimate relationship, so to these clients, the loss of having their Haiti TPS-holding caregivers truly is devastating."
Jewish Community Services has been writing to elected officials to advocate for proposed Senate Bill 4814, which would match a bipartisan bill already passed in the House to extend TPS for Haitians. The effort has currently stalled in the Senate, blocked by Republican opposition.
Hundreds of Haitians have been deported since the Supreme Court ruling, despite widespread gang violence in the country. White House czar Tom Homan defended the deportations in a recent CNN interview.
"The judges made a decision they must go home. And they need to go home... we're just enforcing the law. And we're doing it in a way that the American people voted for."
According to polling released last month by AP-NORC, external, support for Trump's overall immigration policy has fallen 10% since the start of his second term but remains relatively strong compared with other issues like the economy. On deportations, about half of US adults surveyed said Trump had gone too far, which is about the same number as the start of the year.
A Pew Research survey in June 2025, external, before the TPS provision was withdrawn from Haitians, suggested 39% of Americans supported the ending of TPS but 59% disapproved.
Back on Long Island, Mancuso is grieving the loss of a carer who had actually managed to connect with her high-needs son.
"That's one of the things that, as a parent, you worry [about]. Does this kid know that there are other people in the world, other than me, that love him?
"And I think he sensed that from Jean - that it's not just a job."
Her son might not be able to say it, but she knows he misses Jean and doesn't understand why he's no longer there. For Mancuso, her already-high anxiety about her son's well-being is skyrocketing.
"With Jean, I had not a care in the world," she says.
She's worried not just for her son but also for the other families served by the local non-profit - and, of course, for Jean and TPS holders like him who are living with uncertainty, unsure if or when they will be deported.
"I'm hoping against hope that this thing gets resolved," she says. "I care about [Jean] as a human being, he needs a livelihood - and this has been a livelihood for him, and he's good at it, helping my son.
"And it's directly impacting my son by his lack of presence here - and I want him back."
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