Fueled by white nationalist arguments and a need to placate a racist base, Donald Trump and his team have repeatedly pushed for sharp new restrictions on legal immigration to this country.
Add America's already-strained healthcare systems to the list of potential crises-in-waiting if Trump's advisers get their way. Because immigrants make up a very significant portion of our healthcare workers.
The study finds more than one-fourth of direct care workers and 30.3 percent of nursing home housekeeping and maintenance workers are immigrants, underscoring their key role as the U.S. population ages. They make up 18.2 percent of the total health-care workforce at more than 3 million people.
What's the plan to replace those workers? There isn't one. It'll just (waving hands) be fine, somehow. Luckily it's not bloody likely Trump will get his way on harsh limits to legal immigration; when Republicans held the House and Senate both, they conspicuously ignored the White House's most radical demands. But that doesn't mean he won't ramp up those demands as the next election nears. Republican tax cuts landed with a thud and his promises to revitalize various industries have proved vacuous, so racism and conspiracy-peddling are the only cards Trump can still play.
Published with permission from Daily Kos.
