Supreme Court lifts block over Trump’s birthright citizenship order
The Supreme Court decision on 6-3 releases the bloc against President Trump’s order to deny citizenship to undocumented immigrants and babies with visa holders.
Homecare workers wake up at 3:30am, shower and prepare to attend clients for more than 10 hours.
She cooks. She cleans up. She changes the catheter bag. She bathes her clients, checks her blood pressure and makes her take medication. As she closes her shift at 4:30pm at the home of a disabled US Iraq War veteran, she is off the clock, but returns to her first client’s home, a 92-year-old woman with dementia who lives alone and prepares dinner.
She earns $18.50 an hour and does not provide medical benefits. She loves her job, but President Donald Trump is worried about cracking down on immigrants, and a massive deportation plan could threaten his ability to do so.
“Not all immigrants who come here are harmful. Most are here to contribute,” the home care worker told USA Today in Spanish through a translator during a spring interview.. “It’s sad and discouraging to see how immigrants are being treated.”
She asked her to not be used for fear of being targeted for deportation. USA Today confirms her identity and agrees to provide her anonymity, calling her “Julia.”
Julia is one of many immigrants living in a country that does not have a clear path to citizenship. She came to the United States 23 years ago as a temporary protected status holder from El Salvador after an earthquake devastated her home country. Trump is facing a growing uncertainty as he targets others with similar legal but vulnerable immigrant status.
In February, the Trump administration said it would end an extension of temporary protections for more than half a million Haitians and nearly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants this year. In June, the Department of Homeland Security said it had revoked employment approval documents for some individuals, for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who participated in the currently fired parole program.
There were other actions. The president signed an executive order in January, arguing that the United States should revoke people’s birthright citizenship if they are immigrant children without legal approval. The U.S. Court of Appeals blocked the order in February, but in June the Supreme Court ruled that district judges had no authority to completely block presidential lawsuits.
Within days of Trump’s inauguration, the White House announced that what he called the “largest massive deportation operation in history” was already on track.
“Since taking office, my administration has launched the most drastic border and immigration crackdown in American history,” Trump said in a speech to Congress on March 4th.
Julia is one of many immigrants and has a legal status and, The US caregiver industry is dependent. Foreign-born workers can help address the growing need for care given the country’s aging baby boomer population.
According to census data, in 2020, 55.8 million people in the United States were over 65 years old. Health Services research estimates that this number will reach nearly 70 million by 2030.
The National Health and Labor Analytics Center estimated that demand for home health aides would increase by 35%, demand for personal care aides would increase by 38%, and demand for nursing aides would increase by 41% between 2022 and 2037.
Without immigrants, the costs of caring for seniors, children and people with disabilities will already be higher, said April Verlett, president of the United Nations of Service Employees, representing more than 1 million long-term caregivers in the United States and Canada.
“Trump’s immigration policy can dramatically exacerbate a bad situation,” said Donna Norton, executive vice president of Momsrising, a family advocacy nonprofit. “Immigration is the backbone of our community and care infrastructure.”
While immigrants account for 17% of the total American workforce, they account for 31% of home care workers, 21% of residential care aides and nursing assistants, and 30% of nursing home housekeepers’ homekeeping and maintenance workforce.
A much smaller proportion of these workers are considered to be without legal status. Nan Wu, research director for the U.S. Immigration Council, estimates USA Today that the nonprofit estimates that 4.2% of nursing assistants and 6.4% of home health aides nationwide are undocumented, based on census data.
What will happen to the caregiver industry without immigration?
Without massive deportation, Brookings’ economic research program director Ben Harris said actions such as increasing the presence of law enforcement at borders, immigrants departing the country at higher rates, and shutting down the CBP One app, which shuts down the path to legitimate residents of asylum seekers, could make the “cooling effect” for migrants working in the close-up labor market.
These factors, combined with the incumbent workers shortage and high turnover rates in the nursing industry, can quickly affect the cost and quality of care in the US.
Harris noted that nursing and residential care facilities have lost 400,000 employees during the pandemic. Research shows that increased immigration is associated with higher nursing home staffing levels and improved patient outcomes.
“When some people support these truly offensive anti-immigration policies, they may not think that this means that parents or grandparents are likely to have a problematic fall,” Harris told USA Today. “This is not an obvious connection, but it has been established through research.”
A study highlighted by Harris found that increased costs of care in the United States was partially driven by a lack of staffing in nursing homes.
“If there are no people here to take care of our loved ones, that means people have to choose: Would I go to work? Am I at home with my aging parents?” Verrett said. “Families need to make really tough choices when it’s already difficult for them to achieve their goals.”
Immigrants are worried about what will happen next
Without her, Julie is worried that her clients will be wasted. And now there are cuts in government health care programs that are millions away without Medicaid.
“These two individuals are expanding their families, but they are alone,” Julia said through the translator.
Her leave, Julia and other home care workers know how to care for people in communities who cannot afford or qualify for services. Julia said that without workers like her, people would be “left to die.”
Still, Julia is thinking about her own backup plan if she loses her legal status. Her US home care license was not transferred to El Salvador, but she imagines that she would work there as a nurse before moving to the US and could do it again. But she said it was painful to think about leaving her daughter behind, a US citizen.
Nursing assistant Jaz Vergara has treated Covid-19 and cancer patients along with people injured in a wildfire in Southern California. A postponed action for recipients of arrivals as a child, she is also concerned about her legal status as programs protecting her from deportation remain a legal challenge.
“They know where I live, where I work. They know everything. I’m an easy target,” Vergara said. She and other immigrants are trying to “contribute.”
Vergara’s parents took her to the US from Mexico when she was six years old. She listens to the advice of her attorney and holds it well in her savings account in case she loses her legal status and is deported. She investigates whether her US Nursing Assistant Certification will transfer if she moves to Canada but doesn’t want to leave the country she has called her hometown for 20 years.
After decades of living in the US, both Vergara and Julia feel that returning to their country requires a return from the start.
Legislators look for solutions
The House of Representatives reintroduced the February 26 bill that created a legal pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients and a pathway to legal permanent residence for current TPS holders.
“Imagine building your life here just to be told to leave for a country you don’t remember. You don’t even speak any language,” Rep. D-Texas Sylvia Garcia, who reintroduced the bill on the House floor, told USA Today in March. “The Congress must act.”
The 2025 American Dream and Promise Act is co-hosted by 208 Congressional lawmakers, including Florida Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, the only Republican to sign on..
“I’ve always been involving my colleagues in Congress to push for actual immigration reform,” Salazar said in an email to USA Today in the spring. “I think this is the most important conversation we need to have at a national level. We need to be honest about how immigration affects American citizens, the job market, the economy, national security and national character.”
Salazar added that it is important to find a balance between deporting people “really don’t deserve to be here” and working hard to pay taxes and “giving dignity” to those who contribute to the economy, such as violent criminals and gang members.
“It’s always been a challenging topic, but I think this is the moment,” Salazar told USA Today. “Take your time in both Miami and across the country. You’ll find that appetites to solve these problems are very realistic among Americans.”
Even the bill’s 208 co-sponsors must move forward through the House Judiciary and Education and Workforce Committee. Then it must survive the votes in Republican-controlled homes and Senate before it lands on Trump’s desk. At that point he rejected the bill and was able to send it back to Congress for revision., Or sign it to the law.
When USA Today asked the White House in the spring if Trump would sign the bill, White House spokesman Kushdesai replied:
He added that Trump is focusing on demanding transparency in medical prices through his February executive order.
Rep. Jim Jordan of R-Ohio, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Tim Walberg, who chairs the Education Workforce Committee, did not respond to USA Today’s request for comment in March.
Since 2017, lawmakers have been trying to codify the path to legal permanent residence for DACA recipients and TPS holders. Previous versions of the American Dream and Promise Act and other laws aimed at protecting healthcare, as well as essential migrant workers were unable to win votes in the last Congress.
Contact Rachel Barber at rbarber@usatoday.com and follow her at x @rachelbarber_
