a federal judge on Thursday said she'll halt the Trump administration from ending a humanitarian program that allowed about half a million migrants to temporarily live in the US which would set up thousands of people from Cuba Venezuela Haiti and Nicaragua for deportation in about a month those who work in the healthcare industry say it'll take a big hit on the workforce especially at nursing homes where refugee assistance programs have placed many of the migrants to fill roles that have been chronically understaffed senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan takes a look where's the hope what What are we going to do they cried because they fear being deported these Haitian women too terrified to show their faces were both granted special protection here by the US after disaster and gang violence devastated their island nation hades since spiraled into a humanitarian crisis haitians who escaped to Jersey work in healthcare retail and warehouse jobs but the Trump administration's revoked the legal status of more than a half million migrants including Cubans Venezuelans and Nicaraguans urging them to self-deport how do I feel i'm feeling hopeless i can't eat i can't sleep i'm thinking about what can happen what's going to happen to me because I can't go back to my country that easily it's not livable right now joel received a letter from the Trump administration warning as of the termination of your parole you may be subject to expedited removal and that her employment authorization will be revoked as of April 24th unless she submits evidence proving she can stay sasa's temporary protected status expires in August advocates predict repercussions in the job market you know 27,000 Haitians came to New Jersey and the vast majority of those were working age people who came through these these programs so you start deporting folks we're talking about a self-inflicted labor shortage um and it's going to come quickly reverend Seth Caparddale heads I Rise a nonprofit that's helped 2,000 clients from Cuba Haiti Venezuela and Nicaragua find homes and jobs in New Jersey the 750 Haitians work mostly in health care in fact almost 8% of healthcare workers in the Northeast US are non-citizens according to a recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association it warns deportations could especially compromise long-term care where immigrants play a large role dr stephie Woolhandler's a co-author there's three point four million immigrants working in American healthcare and uh punishing them means punishing the American people who need to get access to care since COVID Jerseys long-term care industries struggled to maintain staffing levels required by law despite recent wage increases at St joseph's Senior Home in Woodbridge where the state evacuated residents early in the pandemic managers fear deportations will have a huge negative impact on nursing homes workforce many nursing homes and assisted living homes already have shortages nursing home uh management the folks who manage home care agencies have no idea how they're going to uh provide that direct hands-on care without access to uh Haitian workers you know we often think of a nursing assistant as an unskilled job but it it's actually a very highly skilled job i helped them with everything like cleaning taking care of them feeding them and I found a lot of patient during that because I also have a grandmother so I can say that I love taking care of this people who cannot do it anymore for themselves but the Trump administration remains intent on achieving high deportation quotas rarely pausing to focus on individual cases we need to get better at treating this like a business like Amazon Prime but with human beings explained the acting ICE director according to the Arizona Mirror i would just ask the country to imagine what it's going to look like in a few months when um we have nursing homes closing down um and when people are are trying hard to figure out where they can um land their their relatives who need 247 care but a spokesman for the lobby that represents New Jersey nursing homes said he didn't know whether the deportations would have a major impact or just a minor impact without more data these workers meanwhile asked the president's help to stabilize Haiti so they can go home and rebuild we want to live in our country we don't want to stay everywhere where they are chasing us where they are they don't want us the deportation issue like many of Trump's orders is making its way through the courts i'm Brenda Flanigan NJ Spotlight News [Music]