Tag: immigration

  • Haitian TPS uncertainty puts pressure on Mass health care sector

    Dr. Hans Patrick Domercant has been getting more phone calls than usual.

    As president of the U.S. Haitian Chamber of Commerce, he works to assist and advise local business owners and workers of Haitian background. 

    In early February, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s termination of Temporary Protective Status for Haitian immigrants, which had been set to take effect Feb. 3. The ruling allowed Haitian TPS holders to keep their legal work authorization and protection from deportation while the case moves forward. 

    For now, the status remains in legal limbo as the administration pursues an appeal to the Supreme Court.

    “People are thankful that the recent court decision provided a pause,” Domercant said, “But no one feels fully secure. The conversations I’m having are very real and very personal — people asking, ‘Am I going to be able to keep working?’ ‘Is my family going to be OK?’”

    The Trump administration has pursued an aggressive effort to scale back TPS protections for several countries as part of a broader push to narrow humanitarian immigration programs. Since taking office, the administration has moved to terminate TPS designations for countries including Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Cameroon and Nepal, arguing that conditions in those nations have improved enough to no longer justify the protections. 

    TPS, allows migrants from countries experiencing armed conflict, environmental disaster or other extraordinary conditions to live and work legally in the United States. Haiti was designated for TPS after the devastating 2010 earthquake that killed an estimated 300,000 people and displaced millions more.

    Massachusetts is among the states with the largest Haitian immigrant populations, according to the Migration Policy Institute. The community makes up a significant share of the workforce in Greater Boston and across the commonwealth, particularly in the health care sector, where many work in nursing homes, home health care agencies and long-term care facilities.

    “They are essential,” Domercant said. “These are people who have been here for years. They’ve built lives. They’ve built careers. They’re not temporary in the way the word sounds.”

    Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, said the potential loss of TPS workers would add pressure to a state economy already struggling with labor shortages. Massachusetts has faced slow workforce growth and domestic outmigration for years, he said, making international immigration an increasingly important source of labor and economic stability.

    “Our labor force has grown since the pandemic, and some of the biggest increases in our labor force in two decades are entirely driven by international immigration,” Howgate said. “International immigration has been what has enabled Massachusetts to have a growing population and to have a growing economy.”

    Howgate said the dynamic is especially important in health care. Any change that reduces the number of available workers could worsen staffing shortages in hospitals, long-term care facilities and home health settings.

    If employers are competing for fewer workers, Howgate said, labor costs could rise, adding strain to providers already operating under pressure while trying to maintain patient care.

    “There’s going to be dollars chasing fewer people, which means it could potentially drive up some personnel costs as well.”

    More broadly, Howgate said uncertainty around immigration status can slow economic growth by making it harder for businesses to plan and expand.

    For many Haitian immigrants in Massachusetts, TPS has functioned as more than a temporary administrative status. It has been the legal framework that has allowed them to buy homes and start businesses. The possibility of losing that framework — even if not immediate — creates what Domercant describes as “emotional and economic whiplash.”

    He worries that prolonged uncertainty could stall economic mobility and community investment.

    While the federal court decision has temporarily preserved protections, immigration advocates say the uncertainty itself is already having consequences.

    Elizabeth Sweet, executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said Haitian TPS holders remain legally authorized to live and work in the United States while the case proceeds. But she said confusion, and in some cases misinformation, have already created instability in workplaces across the state.

    “At the moment, individuals with Haitian TPS have a continuing legal status and a continuing work authorization,” Sweet said. 

    Sweet said her organization has received reports of workers being let go prematurely because employers believed TPS protections were ending immediately.

    “That’s not a valid reason to lay someone off,” she said. 

    Three Haitian TPS holders were laid off by Tribute Home Care, based on their status expiring later that week. Even through the federal ruling extended work authorization, GBH reported. 

    Several Haitian-born residents contacted for this story declined interview requests, saying they feared being identified while their status remains uncertain. 

    Their reluctance to speak publicly reflects the anxiety and instability that advocates and community leaders say have intensified in recent weeks. Even with the court’s temporary block in place, some workers remain wary that public exposure could carry professional or personal consequences.

    For health care providers already navigating chronic staffing shortages, even small disruptions can ripple quickly through patient care systems.

    Since the COVID-19 pandemic, recruitment pipelines have thinned while burnout has increased. Losing experienced staff would likely compound those pressures.

    Sweet argued that the underlying conditions that justified the status remain.

    “The conditions in Haiti are truly the type of conditions that temporary protected status was meant to address,” she said. 

    While state officials in Massachusetts have issued guidance to employers about navigating immigration-related uncertainty, immigration status itself is determined at the federal level.

    In the meantime, prolonged instability carries broader economic implications. Small business lending decisions, expansion plans and hiring strategies often depend on predictability. If thousands of workers face potential loss of work authorization, employers may hesitate to invest.

    Domercant said that hesitancy is already creeping into conversations.

    “When people feel secure, they build,” Domercant said. “They buy homes. They start businesses. They pursue education. That benefits everyone — not just the Haitian community, but the entire state.”

    This uncertainty places workers in a difficult position even before any formal change takes effect. Some may hesitate to pursue jobs, apply for promotions or make major financial commitments while their status remains under review. 

    Others may find themselves having to repeatedly explain their legal status to employers unfamiliar with TPS protections and court rulings. That confusion can deepen anxiety for workers who are still legally authorized to remain employed.

    “It’s not just about jobs,” Domercant said. “It’s about the ability to plan a life.”

    If TPS were ultimately terminated and work authorization revoked, the impact would be felt beyond the Haitian community.

    Health care facilities would scramble to fill gaps, small businesses owned by TPS holders might close or scale back operations, affecting landlords, suppliers and local tax bases.

    The potential effects on the health care sector also reflect broader risks for other industries in Massachusetts that rely on TPS workers. While the consequences may be especially visible in health care, the disruption would not stop there. 

    Employers across multiple sectors depend on TPS holders to fill essential roles, and any loss of work authorization could shrink the labor pool at a time when many businesses are already facing hiring challenges, according to Bloomberg Law.

    For now, the court’s temporary block has bought time. 

  • Robert Cappucci makes yet another bid for mayor; one of three challenging Mayor Wu

    Robert Cappucci. Georgia Epiphaniou photo.

    Robert Cappucci has been campaigning for public office for more than five decades, with runs for state representative, Congress, City Council and now, for the fourth time, mayor of Boston. 

    “A winner, as they say, never quits, and a quitter never wins,” says the 80-year-old one-time Boston Police officer.

    He has been successful twice: In 1987, and again in 1989, he was elected to the Boston School Committee. He didn’t have an opportunity to win a third time because membership on the school panel became an appointed position in 1991.

    Before, during, and in between his attempts to win public office, he has had his hand in different lines of work. In addition to his time with the BPD, he was a substitute teacher in the for Boston Public Schools and, for several years, he was involved in real estate.

    A lifelong East Boston resident who grew up with four siblings and served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War (1968-1974), he has never been married. He describes himself as a “workaholic.”

    In 2013, he announced a campaign for mayor but failed to turn in enough signatures to qualify for the ballot. In 2017 and 2021, he made the ballot, but did not advance beyond the preliminary municipal elections, receiving 6.7 percent of the vote in 2017 and 1.1 percent in 2021.

    Cappucci has roots in electoral politics. His father, Enrico, represented East Boston as a Democratic member of the Massachusetts House from 1937 to 1949. He says his father told him that he wasn’t cut out to be a politician. “I guess he knows what a politician is, and I don’t.”

    Still, Cappucci didn’t know exactly what his father meant by his assertion – Enrico died in 1976, two years before his son’s first run for public office, for state representative – but he later interpreted it to mean that politicians pander to different audiences. 

    “As I got older, I think of a politician as someone that is pretty good with their words, so they don’t really commit themselves,” Cappucci says. “A politician to me seems to have no — I hate to say it — conscience.”

    He is running as a conservative in a city that has had a Democrat in the mayor’s office continually since James Michael Curley took office for the third time in 1931. But Cappucci has never been deterred by the political makeup of his city, where 39.7 percent of voters are Democrats, 55.2 percent are unenrolled, and 4.3 percent are Republicans.

    “Although it’s a liberal city, there are plenty of people out there that have my way of doing things,” he says, “a conservative way.”

    John Dillon, a self-styled “liberal,” has supported Cappucci the office-seeker from his first run for School Committee through his bid for mayor in 2021. A knee injury has kept him on the sidelines this year.

    “He did his service on a nuclear submarine. Do you know what you have to do — to go through — to do that?” Dillon asked. “You’re put through all sorts of psychological tests and everything else, so it told me he was a real bright guy. And the fact that he always wanted to help the poor was another thing that really hit me.”

    Cappucci says he is running as a “unifier candidate,” which to him means bridging the gap between Democrats and Republicans on certain issues.

    In 2021, he was a critic of so-called “sanctuary cities.” Though he didn’t clearly lay out his stance for his latest campaign in this interview, he did say he favors President Trump’s efforts to increase arrests and deportations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). 

    “He’s going after, from what I have been observing, people that are very bad,” Cappucci said. “They’re killers, they’re murderers, they’re rapists. That’s who he’s targeting.”

    When pushed on this statement with examples of detentions involving undocumented individuals without criminal records — like Marcelo Gomes da Silva, a Milford teen who was detained by ICE on his way to volleyball practice in May — Cappucci said he wasn’t sure that media accounts were accurate. 

    “As my father always told me, being an attorney in politics, he said, ‘Don’t believe everything you read,’” he said. “So, when you get situations like that, I’m not sure we’re getting the truth.”

    Cappucci is a critic of incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu, especially with respect to her handling of the situation at Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, an area with a history of rampant substance misuse. 

    Richard Masterson, a Cappucci supporter and lifelong Roxbury resident, said no one is solving the problem. 

    “It seems like they just push it from one area to another area to another area,” he said. “There are people shooting up drugs, needles hanging out of their necks and out of their arms, and sitting on the curbs. They have nowhere to go.”

    Cappucci holds Wu responsible for the ongoing problem. He told Masterson that, if elected, he would seek to reopen Long Island Hospital, which offered addiction treatments but was closed in 2014 when officials deemed the bridge to Long Island to be in poor condition. 

    Among his other concerns about Wu’s mayoralty is the ongoing redevelopment of White Stadium in Franklin Park. “I really have a problem with trying to do things when you’re giving away the tax dollars,” he said. “We need that money for so many reasons.” He said housing, education, and infrastructure should take precedence over the stadium.

    Although wins and losses are out of his control, Cappucci says that running for office is what he wants to do for the rest of his life.

    “As a Catholic, I’m trying to do the best I can. So when I go before him — when I pass away — he can say, hopefully, ‘You did a good job.’”

  • Five state legislators outline strategy to counter Trump administration at Brookline forum

    From left to right: Moderator Tom Hallock, State Senator Cindy Creem, State Representative Tommy Vitolo, State Representative Bill MacGregor, State Representative Greg Schwartz and State Representative Kevin Honan. Photo by Jacqueline Manetta

    Five Democratic state lawmakers advised Brookline residents Monday how to navigate the Trump administration and push back against its policies.

    About 70 people attended the forum, which featured state Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem and state Reps. Kevin Honan, William MacGregor, Greg Schwartz and Tommy Vitolo. It was hosted by the Brookline Democratic Town Committee and Activist Evenings, a progressive group based in Brookline.

    Tom Hallock, treasurer of the Brookline Democrats, asked the legislators questions about essential services, the environment and immigration. The group responded to three audience questions at the end and stayed afterwards to answer one-on-one questions.

    Creem cited the state Senate’s new committee, Response 2025, as a potential solution to the Trump administration’s cuts. The initiative has tasked the bipartisan Committee on Steering, Policy and Scheduling with finding policy solutions to combat misinformation and protect residents’ rights.

    Keeping political allies in office is one of the most effective ways to fight the executive branch’s polarizing policies, Vitolo said.

    “I think it’s really important in all of the things we talk about tonight to consider the reality that if Governor Healey doesn’t win reelection — or Attorney General Campbell doesn’t win reelection — we are in much worse shape,” he said.

    Schwartz, the only medical doctor in the Massachusetts legislature, said health care programs — and consequently state revenue — will be affected if defunding continues. If the U.S. Senate approves President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” Massachusetts can expect its $14 billion of Medicaid reimbursement to be reduced, he said.

    “That could affect 200,000 to 300,000 patients losing Medicaid and, of course, it will affect the emergency rooms, the primary care physicians and the hospitals, which are already not in great shape,” Schwartz said.

    All five lawmakers emphasized the need for Massachusetts to remain at the forefront of responsible environmental efforts as federal environmental protections roll back. The legislators plan to concentrate on statewide initiatives such as expanding clean energy, increasing accessibility to electric vehicles and strengthening existing policies.

    The lawmakers also discussed immigration, which they identified as a core American principle that must be protected. Honan cited several bills that work to protect the rights of immigrants, including the federal Safe Communities Act, which prevents local law enforcement from asking about immigration status.

    “We say the best Americans represent hard work, taking chances, building a business, finding success, improving yourself and being part of a community,” Vitolo said. “These are all the things we say we value as a country, and the folks who do it best are the immigrants.”

    Before taking questions from the audience, Creem discussed the Massachusetts Data Privacy and Protection Act and its aim to support women’s reproductive health care rights.

    Under the bill, selling location data and other information collected on cellphones and devices would be prohibited. In recent court cases, consumers’ data from apps has been used  to prosecute health care providers and women receiving out-of-state abortions.

    “My hope is that we can protect that data and minimize the use of that data outside of what you intended it to be,” Creem said.

    The audience at a community forum on safeguarding democracy on Monday, Jun 9, 2025. Photo by Jacqueline Manetta

    Asked if the public has a role to play in resisting the Trump administration’s policies, the lawmakers urged residents to engage with opposing viewpoints and point out injustices.

    “Every second Saturday, from 11 to 1 p.m. in Coolidge Corner, we’re out there doing the very public work of reminding folks that this is not normal, and it’s perfectly reasonable to say it out loud,” Vitolo said.

    The audience erupted with applause as the panel of representatives was asked about increasing transparency in the state’s government.

    MacGregor said representatives are candid about financial statements and regularly audited.

    Creem said she posts her votes on social media to communicate with her constituents. The accusation of insufficient transparency has been brought to her attention before, but she said she doesn’t understand what voters mean or where their concerns come from.

    Schwartz, who was elected to his position in 2024, framed problems with transparency as a potential shortcoming of the media.

    The legislators’ answers to the transparency question were met with eye rolling and groans.

    The event closed with a discussion about reforming the Democratic party. Although Honan said he thinks Republicans will cause their own demise, MacGregor and Creem said Democrats must regain popularity with the working class.

    Vitolo and Schwartz agreed their party must find a message that speaks to a larger segment of the population.

    “We on the left like to play demographic bingo with our voters,” Vitolo said. “What they see is a Democratic party picking off little bits and pieces of certain people and saying, ‘That’s what’s important’ instead of saying everybody’s important.”