“People are afraid to go to work. Entire sectors of the economy will slow, and there will be workforce crises,”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
CONTACT: Daniela Perez, [email protected]
On Tuesday, Marketplace published an article highlighting the immediate and long-term effects on the labor market stemming from recent immigration raids in California. National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA) President Ai-jen Poo joined Marketplace to highlight the consequences specifically for the care workforce.
“People are afraid to go to work. Entire sectors of the economy will slow, and there will be workforce crises,” according to Ai-jen Poo, president of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. “There already is one in health care, where a shortage of home health aides has been exacerbated by the pandemic and an aging population. It’s kind of an all-hands-on-deck situation where a strong immigrant workforce and non-immigrant.”
Immigrant workers account for 32% of home care workers, making up a significant portion of the U.S. caregiving workforce. Trump’s policies could worsen labor shortages in this sector, which is already struggling to meet the needs of the aging U.S. population. In California nursing homes, more than half of certified nursing assistants — direct care workers who feed, bathe and dress residents — were born in other countries, according to a study published last year in Health Affairs. Immigrants also represent 1 in 3 domestic workers in the country, and 1 in 3 workers in the state of California.
Experts warn that removing immigrants from the caregiving workforce will lead to rising costs, lower quality of care, and fewer options for elderly Americans. The aging population (with 10,000 people turning 65 every day) already faces a caregiving crisis, and a reduction in immigrant workers would exacerbate these challenges.
