Nursing homes, foreign workers face threats from administration

The long-term care industry is concerned about the administration’s immigrant deportations and proposals to reduce Medicaid spending. More than 800,000 immigrants and naturalized citizens make up 28% of direct care employees at home care agencies, nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Foreign workers, including those who are legal immigrants, are fearful of being deported, including those who were here legally but recently had their refugee status revoked. In addition, spending cuts in the reconciliation bill under negotiation could keep nursing homes from leveraging some of their largest revenue sources by limiting the ways states use Medicaid money and making it more difficult for new nursing home residents to qualify retroactively for Medicaid. Approximately 60% of nursing home residents are on Medicaid. (KFF News article, 6/26/25)