Healthcare Coalition’s Day of Action Highlights Importance of Supporting Immigrant Healthcare Workers

Healthcare Coalition’s Day of Action Highlights Importance of Supporting Immigrant Healthcare Workers

Coalition Led Morning City Hall Press Conference, Lunchtime Actions Across City to Demand Action to Protect Immigrant Rights and Fund Healthcare

New York, NY - A coalition of healthcare workers and supporters entitled “Healthcare Needs All of Us” held a day of action Thursday to highlight the importance of supporting immigrant healthcare workers. The day began with a morning news conference at City Hall, and continued with afternoon actions, including lunchtime rallies at Maimonides and Interfaith Medical Centers in Brooklyn.

“NYSNA is proud to be part of a coalition that is fighting back to protect our immigrant members and co-workers because it’s the right thing to do, and also because delivering quality care relies on having enough staff,” said Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, CCRN, President of NYSNA. “This administration has shown through the so-called One Bill Beautiful Bill Act that it is determined to dismantle healthcare funding and access to care for millions of people. Through its attacks on immigrants, it’s now dismantling the workforce that delivers care.”

“Five years ago, we were here at City Hall celebrating the heroism of healthcare workers who served on the frontlines of the pandemic. Today, we are here in the same spot, because many of those same caregivers who we honored are now experiencing unconscionable cruelty at the hands of the Trump Administration. Immigrant workers who saved the lives of New Yorkers, and who continue to save lives and provide quality care every single day are losing their ability to work, being forced into the shadows, and forced to make impossible choices about keeping their families together,” said Nadine Williamson, 1199SEIU Senior Executive Vice President who is leading the immigration response at the nation’s largest healthcare union. “Our healthcare system is already reeling from the $1 Trillion in federal Medicaid cuts contained in the Republican budget bill. The attacks on immigrants are making it even worse. We are demanding that Congress protect our communities by restoring healthcare funding by clawing back the billions of Medicaid dollars they took and gave to ICE, and to give DREAMers a path to citizenship, and restore TPS.”

“Since Temporary Protected Status ended, facilities are understaffed with the remaining staff stretched to the limit. Some seniors in the Bronx have had the only person who truly knew and loved them just disappear when their caregivers could no longer work. It’s heartbreaking and it’s wrong,” said Joy Montague, a Licensed Practical Nurse from the Bronx. “Our elders in nursing homes and home care programs deserve better. Congress must prioritize healthcare investments instead of funding ICE and deportations–and they must restore legal status for TPS holders.”

"Anti-immigrant policies like ending Temporary Protected Status for Haitian immigrants not only harm our neighbors who sought safety in the United States and are being forced back into dangerous conditions, but also hurt the communities who rely on their services and care,” said Henry Garrido, Executive Director of District Council 37 AFSCME. “Many of our own members are now facing the excruciating challenge of how to provide for their families while facing the threat of deportation. These policies are cruel and inhumane, and we call on the federal government to reverse these decisions and restore legal status for TPS holders.”

Attendees included NYC Central Labor Council President Brendan Griffith; Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services Helen J. Artega; Richard Mallot, Long Term Care Community Coalition; CIR-SEIU National Secretary-Treasurer Dr. Melissa Marseille; Metro New York Healthcare for all Director Mark Hannay; U.S. Rep. Grace Meng; Council Member Mercedes Narcisse; Council Member Lynn Schulman; Elisabeth Benjamin, Community Service Society; Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Faiza Ali.

“It’s clear that The Trump 2.0 regime is taking health care away from everyday people, letting health care prices go through the roof to benefit health care corporations, slashing vital public health and medical research programs, and destroying our health care delivery system, but organized labor and community leaders are standing up together to say NO!”, said Mark Hannay, Director of Metro New York Health Care for All, and Coordinator of Health Care for America Now’s New York State Network. “First they yanked away health coverage under the #OneBigUglyBill and insurance prices and profits skyrocketed; then they let Elon Musk and OMB Director Russel Vought take a chainsaw to our vital federal health agencies and programs; and now they are attacking our LEGAL immigrant health care workforce, thereby creating staffing crises for hospitals, nursing homes, and home care programs, and denying needed services to patients, nursing home residents, and home care clients. This all has to stop NOW, and we urge voters to bear all this in mind when they go to the polls in 6 weeks.”

The day-of-action continued with lunchtime actions across New York. In Brooklyn, members of 1199SEIU and NYSNA rallied at Maimonides Medical Center to lift up the need to stand together to protect immigrant workers and patients. Healthcare workers also rallied at Interfaith Medical Center, holding signs and chanting to call attention to the crisis in healthcare caused by recent immigration actions.

Nearly 20% of the United States’ essential caregivers and providers in hospitals, nursing homes, and home and community-based care were born outside of the United States. Roughly one million hold legal work permissions that are being threatened under the Trump Administration, which has launched the largest de-documentation push in U.S. history. The coalition is standing up to protect the healthcare workforce, and access to safe, quality care for the nation’s most vulnerable patients.

The coalition's demands include:

• Immediately restoring legal status for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders and other immigrants, including by enacting the Senate bill to extend TPS for Haitians (S4814).
• Enact a path to citizenship for all immigrants who have lived in the U.S. for many years and meet other basic requirements (S. 2468/ HR 4696) and immediately create a path to citizenship for Dreamers and TPS holders by passing the Dream and Promise Act.
• End discriminatory travel bans and processing delays preventing qualified immigrants from continuing to work lawfully or reaching the United States.
• Claw back money being used for excessive and cruel deportation operations and use it to restore federal health care cuts to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act.

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Healthcare Needs All of Us is a campaign that aims to unite and mobilize healthcare workers, providers, patients, and allies to advocate for the dignity and respect that every family deserves. Our campaign partners include labor unions, consumer advocates and others concerned about our healthcare workforce. The coalition includes both national and New York-based partners, including the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), National Nurses United, SEIU, 1199SEIU, Committee of Interns and Residents/SEIU, DC37 AFSCME, Community Change, Families USA, the Coalition on Human Needs, Moms Rising Together, Alianza Americas, Health Care for All New York, iAmerica, Metro New York Healthcare for All, Protect Our Care, and United We Dream Action.