JULY 2, 2026

Supreme Court TPS Ruling Raises Concerns About Healthcare Workforce Shortfalls

The Supreme Court last week cleared the way for the Trump administration to end Temporary Protected Status for more than 330,000 Haitians and 4,000 Syrians currently living in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security subsequently announced that existing Employment Authorization Documents for TPS recipients will expire on July 10. Healthcare industry leaders and researchers have warned that the ruling could deepen an existing workforce shortage in hospitals, nursing homes, and home care settings.

The Supreme Court's ruling on Temporary Protected Status has prompted alarm from healthcare administrators, long-term care providers, and immigration advocates, who say the decision threatens to accelerate a staffing crisis already straining hospitals and senior care facilities across the country.

Steffie Woolhandler, a distinguished professor of health policy at the City University of New York at Hunter College and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, told NPR that the long-term care sector will face the greatest disruptions. She said two-thirds of hospitals have already had to close beds due to insufficient staffing, and roughly half of nursing homes report being unable to accept new admissions for the same reason. "The healthcare of everybody is going to be compromised by this," Woolhandler said.

A 2025 report co-authored by Woolhandler, drawing on census data, found that approximately 50,000 physicians in the U.S. are noncitizens — about 9% of all doctors — and that another 145,000 are registered nurses. The immigration advocacy organization FWD.us estimated that 21,000 Haitian TPS holders specifically hold hard-to-fill roles as nursing assistants and caregivers, according to NPR's reporting.