‘We’re human beings’: Haitians in the US fear family separation and deportation to violence

Roudechel Charpentier, a Haitian immigrant who lives and works legally in the US under temporary protected status, in Springfield, Ohio, on 3 February 2026. Photograph: Luis Henao/AP

More than 330,000 Haitian immigrants in the US are set to lose their ability to legally live and work in the country as the Trump administration seeks to terminate their temporary protected status. An estimated 13,000 are nursing assistants, who care for 65,000 patients every day.

“I get up at 5am every morning and I take two buses to work to clean the rooms of the residents. I give my heart,” said a nursing home housekeeper with TPS from Haiti, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. “These residents are like my grandmother.”