- Wisconsin care employers say the January 2025 refugee suspension halted overseas hiring plans they had prepared for years.
- Nearly 350,000 Haitian immigrants lost Temporary Protected Status on August 4, 2026, putting some Wisconsin caregivers’ work authorization at risk.
- A bipartisan Wisconsin bill passed in April 2026, allowing DACA recipients to obtain professional licenses, including in nursing.
Wisconsin care leaders say federal immigration policy is worsening the state’s caregiver shortage, as refugee restrictions and the loss of temporary protections close routes that employers had planned to use to recruit workers.
Some home health agencies and nursing homes had spent years preparing to hire overseas. Their plans changed after the Trump administration’s January 2025 refugee suspension took effect. Some employers abandoned those efforts.
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Katie Smith Sloan, CEO of LeadingAge, a national aging-services trade group, said the federal government had sharply narrowed the available routes for foreign-born workers. Many of those workers enter aging-services jobs, she said.
“We have basically cut off or severely limited every pipeline that we have for bringing in, for welcoming foreign-born workers, many of whom end up working in our sector in aging services. … We don't have a sort of ready supply of U.S.-born individuals who are clamoring to work in aging services, and that's not a new issue.”
The staffing pressure is not limited to refugee admissions. The administration’s actions involving Temporary Protected Status have also affected workers in Wisconsin care settings, including Haitian immigrants who work in central Wisconsin.
Refugee hiring plans stopped after the January 2025 suspension
Wisconsin home health agencies and nursing homes had looked overseas to fill jobs before the federal suspension. Some gave up those plans after it took effect, according to the account of the staffing problem.
The White House’s stated rationale was that the United States could not support new refugees without “compromis(ing) the availability of resources for Americans.” The change narrowed a hiring route that some Wisconsin employers had been preparing to use for years.
Care-industry leaders describe the effect as a loss of potential workers while employers struggle to recruit domestically. Sloan said there was no ready supply of U.S.-born workers seeking aging-services jobs. She also said that shortage was not new.
That leaves employers with fewer recruitment options. The state’s care providers already face a severe labor shortage as demand for home health and nursing care remains high.
TPS losses put Haitian caregivers at risk of losing work authorization
The administration has terminated 14 TPS programs, affecting people from 13 countries. Nearly 350,000 Haitian immigrants lost TPS on August 4, 2026.
The program offers temporary permission to live and work in the United States to people from countries facing crises such as war or natural disaster. Its termination can therefore affect workers as well as their immigration status.
Marc Christopher, an immigration attorney, said many Haitian immigrants in central Wisconsin work in home health care and nursing. He said they are losing work permits and immigration status and face deportation.
The workforce reach extends beyond Wisconsin. KFF data cited in the reporting estimated that 53,000 TPS holders worked in health care in 2024. The figure covers health care workers nationally, not only caregivers in Wisconsin.
Immigrants account for 30% of direct care workers nationwide
KFF also found that immigrants make up 30% of all direct care workers nationwide. That share gives the immigration changes a national workforce dimension, while Wisconsin employers deal with the consequences in home care and nursing facilities.
LeadingAge represents aging-services organizations. Sloan’s remarks reflect employers’ concern that they cannot readily replace foreign-born workers with U.S.-born recruits. Agencies have struggled to find enough workers inside the country.
Federal changes have narrowed several pathways used by care employers. The refugee suspension affected planned overseas recruitment, while TPS terminations put some existing workers’ permission to remain and work at risk.
A bipartisan Wisconsin bill opened licensing to DACA recipients
Wisconsin lawmakers have also taken a state-level step aimed at easing professional barriers. A bill passed in April 2026 allows DACA recipients to obtain professional licenses in nursing and other fields.
State Sen. Jesse James, R-Thorp, Rep. Joel Kitchens, R-Sturgeon Bay, and Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D-Milwaukee, co-authored the measure. The bipartisan proposal connects access to professional licensing with the state’s workforce shortage.
It does not reverse the federal refugee suspension or restore TPS for people whose protections have ended. It changes licensing access for DACA recipients seeking to work in nursing and other licensed fields.
The account linking immigration policy to Wisconsin’s caregiver shortage was published on September 23, 2026. Home health care and nursing homes remain the settings at the center of the reported staffing strain.
