Latest news with #CHNV
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
Amazon Worker Fears Deportation After Humanitarian Parole Revoked
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. An Amazon employee in Indiana fears she will be deported to a war-torn country after her humanitarian parole was revoked by the Trump administration. Now, her husband believes that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents will come for her. Daphnee S. Poteau, 33, originally from Haiti, had been working at an Amazon customer returns center in Speedway since entering the United States on July 4, 2023, under the Biden-era CHVN humanitarian parole program. On June 14, she was sent home mid-way through her shift after she lost her right to work. The CHNV parole program was launched in early 2023 by the Biden administration to provide a lawful pathway for individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to enter the U.S. temporarily under humanitarian parole. Participants with U.S.-based sponsors could live and work in the country for up to two years. Though Poteau has not been arrested or detained by immigration authorities, Poteau's husband, Kristopher D. Vincent, 45, an Amazon associate and U.S. citizen, says the family is feeling "frustrated and scared." "I am afraid they will come looking for her eventually. We've seen it in the news a lot lately. People in black masks snatching—or attempting to snatch—migrants up, even at immigration hearings," Vincent told Newsweek. "When judges, and even U.S. representatives, are facing arrests and indictments, how are the little people like us supposed to feel? Her only 'crime' seems to be coming from the 'wrong' country." He added: "Unfortunately, that is less than a month from now. My location probably placed her on an unpaid suspension early because they are looking for ways to downsize the workforce." Richard Rocha, a spokesperson for Amazon, told Newsweek: "We've reached out to and are supporting employees impacted by the government's recent changes in immigration policy." Daphnee S. Poteau, 33, originally from Haiti, had been working at an Amazon customer returns center in Speedway since entering the United States on July 4, 2023, under the Biden-era CHVN humanitarian parole program. On... Daphnee S. Poteau, 33, originally from Haiti, had been working at an Amazon customer returns center in Speedway since entering the United States on July 4, 2023, under the Biden-era CHVN humanitarian parole program. On June 14, 2025, she was sent home mid-way through her shift after she lost her right to work. More Supplied The couple met through work and married earlier this year on April 2. Vincent, a lifelong Indiana resident, had only recently moved in with Daphnee and her twin brother, who also works for Amazon and remains employed—for now—at a different Indianapolis-area facility. "I'm afraid to go back to my country because the gang members paralyzed our country. You can go to work and never come back. You can be kidnapped or raped," Poteau told Newsweek. Haiti is currently grappling with extreme political instability and a surge in gang violence, leaving much of the country in crisis. Armed gangs now control about 80 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, engaging in kidnappings, extortion, and deadly clashes with security forces. With the clock ticking on her immigration status and rent nearing $1,200 a month, Vincent launched a GoFundMe campaign to cover legal costs and living expenses. He estimates the total cost to secure Daphnee's legal stay—including filing for an "alien relative" spousal visa and, eventually, a green card—could reach $4,000 to $5,000. The campaign's goal is $20,000—a figure he says would cover a full year of rent and the immigration process. The Trump administration's move to revoke Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitian immigrants is part of an effort to roll back Biden-era immigration policies. On January 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to end all categorical parole programs, including CHNV. This policy reversal cited concerns over the "integrity" of the immigration system. DHS Secretary Kristi Noem formalized the program's termination in a March 25 Federal Register notice, setting April 24, as the expiration date for all active CHNV parole grants and related work authorizations. Over 530,000 parolees were notified they must leave the U.S. or risk detention and deportation. Immigrant advocacy groups quickly challenged the mass termination in court, arguing that revoking parole and work authorization on such a large scale violated due process. A federal judge temporarily blocked the DHS action, requiring case-by-case reviews instead of blanket terminations. However, on May 30, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the lower court's injunction in a 7–2 decision, allowing the Trump administration to proceed with ending the CHNV program and revoking parole and work authorization for thousands of affected individuals. This decision accelerated efforts to dismantle the humanitarian parole pathway established under the previous administration.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
As Trump pledges mass deportation, he's creating more undocumented people
Florndjie Camey, 31, had gone from a bleak future in Haiti to hope for a new life; she had landed a cashier's job in her new city of Miami after coming to the country legally with a sponsor. Then, President Donald Trump declared that she and more than 1 million other people did not have legal permission to stay in the country. Trump, seeking to go down in history as the president who carried out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, deemed that the Biden administration program that allowed Camey and hundreds of thousands of others to legally enter the U.S was actually illegal. Trump has pledged to clear the country of people who are illegally here, but the new criteria is expected to significantly expand the pool of undocumented immigrants. 'If you're looking for the definition of 'self-fulling prophesy,' look no further than Trump's stream of policies that intentionally take legal status away from people so they go from being documented, to undocumented and then are fair game for being deported,' said Angela Kelley, an adviser at the American Immigration Law Center and a former senior adviser on immigration for the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration. 'The Trump administration is creating a larger class of undocumented people by literally de-legalizing them and taking away their work authorization early,' Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center, said in a statement. By 'delegalizing' Camey and others, Trump has drastically hiked the number of people who could be deported through a sped-up process, while helping his administration meet its goal of ridding the country of 1 million immigrants a year. 'What happened to his promise of targeting criminals? He's had to create larger numbers of targets and even then, the folks aren't criminals, because they're here legally,' Kelley said. On May 30, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to strip more than 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) of the permission they were given to live and work in the U.S. temporarily through the CHNV parole program. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has issued a notice saying that the administration has terminated the parole and authorization to work for those in the CHNV program directed them to 'self-deport' immediately. Immigration groups have contested the administration's assertion that the Biden program is unlawful. Guerline Jozef, executive director and founder of Haitian Bridge Alliance, said in a statement that hundreds of thousands in that program had trusted the U.S. government and had undergone extended vetting to secure lawful status. 'Now they are having the rug violently pulled out from under them,' Jozef said. The Trump administration has stated that the humanitarian parole granted through the CHNV program didn't sufficiently improve border security and made interior enforcement more difficult. It argues that parole was meant to be more narrowly used. When the Supreme Court allowed Trump to terminate the CHNV program, the administration said in a statement that the participants were 'poorly vetted' and were given opportunities to compete for American jobs. The Trump administration said the programs were promoted despite fraud within them. The Department of Homeland Security referred NBC News to the same statement in response to a request for additional comment. NBC News also has contacted the White House seeking comment. Steve Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for immigration restrictions, supports the administration's actions. Perpetuating previous parole policies 'is creating the situation that caused the border crisis' under Biden, Camarota said. 'If you don't move to end them, then you are not very serious about dealing with this reality.' Critics of Trump's policies point out that while the administration has focused on more deportations, it hasn't expanded the number of visas or other mechanisms to legally bring workers into the country or to legalize immigrants who've spent years trying to adjust their immigration status. The business and the agricultural communities have called for more visas and ways to help legalize immigrants in order to expand the pool of workers needed in a number of industries and to keep a viable labor force amid a decline in U.S. birth rates. 'We've just seen no effort to improve legal pathways and, if anything, things have gotten worse,' said Stuart Anderson, executive director for the National Foundation for American Policy, a public policy group focused on trade, immigration and related issues. Anderson noted Trump has made vague comments about legal pathways, such as his suggestion that some agricultural and hotel workers could leave the country and return if their employers' vouched for them. The administration had paused raids involving those workers, but DHS reversed that decision this week. Meanwhile, the administration has instituted travel bans on a number of countries. For people from Haiti, there is essentially a complete ban on travel to the U.S., with bans on temporary visas and immigrant visas, he said. 'They've done nothing to make it easier to get visas and made it harder in many areas, including student visas,' Anderson said. In Haiti, Camey was working to help youth in need and had returned to school to finish her university studies in psychology. But she saw no future for her and her young daughter and no chance to build a life. She was living in rural Fort Liberté, in the northern part of the country, where violence was not as bad as in Port-au-Prince but where gangs were beginning to extend their reach, she told NBC News in her native Creole. 'I felt like I was just existing. There was no future — you can't build anything, not even save enough to buy a car. Some people had it even worse — no food or shelter ... There is truly no future,' she said. Camey was sponsored to come to the U.S. by her aunt, making it possible for her to work in the U.S. and also support her daughter and family in Haiti. 'It felt like a second chance at life. I'm someone who likes to work and has strong willpower. It was a new experience and a new beginning,' Camey said. Because the CHNV parole program is temporary — good for up to two years — legally vetted immigrants like Camey and others would have to find other possible ways, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or asylum, to remain in the country. But those other routes might also be difficult. In addition to terminating parole for the hundreds of thousands in the CHNV program, Trump has been trying to revoke the TPS of 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants. He's targeted nearly 300,000 more people from Afghanistan, Cameroon and Haiti who also were granted TPS, which grants protection from deportation and eligibility for work authorization for about six to 18 months and is extendable. More than 900,000 people given permission to come into the country through the Biden administration's CBP One app also have been told to leave the country. Many who entered using the app have asylum claims or are TPS recipients. Some who used the app have been arrested and detained and some have been shipped to El Salvador's notoriously brutal mega prison CECOT. The administration has gone further and wants to yank American citizenship from some people who don't have at least one U.S. citizen or legal resident parent. According to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, ending birthright citizenship for children with unauthorized parents or other noncitizens, such as those temporarily here, 'would significantly swell the size of the unauthorized population — now and for generations to come.' Specifically, the Trump plan for ending birthright citizenship would increase the unauthorized population by 2.7 million by 2045 and by 5.4 million by 2075, according to a Migration Policy Institute-Penn State analysis. Every year for 50 years, about 255,000 children born in the U.S. would start life without U.S. citizenship, according to MPI-Penn State's analysis. Noting that Trump's actions are being challenged in court, Camarota said the Trump administration learned from the president's first term in the White House that 'you may prevail in court, but you better start now' in trying to remove people who the administration believes should not have been granted entry. He added that the parole and TPS programs that are meant to be temporary don't often end up being temporary 'and that's what we're trying to undo.' 'It's not absurd that the longer people are here, they do have more of a claim on our conscience, but that is what we are trying to avoid,' Camarota said. In the end, he added, the goal is to encourage people to leave. Faced with the prospect of having to return to Haiti, five Haitians who used the Biden parole program to come to the U.S. and were sponsored by Rivly Breus of Miami have relocated to Canada. Others may go to Chile and a few will go to Mexico or the Virgin Islands, Breus said. When the CHNV program opened, Breus and nine other people created a 'sponsor circle' to individually sponsor families. They used their own earnings to initially clothe, house, feed and support them as they found jobs and settled in. They also pooled money to create an emergency fund. In all, the individuals in the circle sponsored 30 people, Breus said. The end of the CHNV program 'saddens me,' she said. 'It's not that these people want to leave their homeland,' Breus said. 'It's a question of survival. These people have been trying to survive their entire lives. A lot of them don't want to give up because giving up means death for them or just being in a position where there is nothing to live for.' Camey, who has filed for Temporary Protected Status, has no other option now but to go to a different country, Breus said. 'I would never stay (here) undocumented,' Camey said. 'All I know is I won't go back to Haiti.' This article was originally published on
NBC News
4 days ago
- Politics
- NBC News
As Trump pledges mass deportation, he's creating more undocumented people
Florndjie Camey, 31, had gone from a bleak future in Haiti to hope for a new life; she had landed a cashier's job in her new city of Miami after coming to the country legally with a sponsor. Then, President Donald Trump declared that she and more than 1 million other people did not have legal permission to stay in the country. Trump, seeking to go down in history as the president who carried out the largest mass deportation in U.S. history, deemed that the Biden administration program that allowed Camey and hundreds of thousands of others to legally enter the U.S was actually illegal. Trump has pledged to clear the country of people who are illegally here, but the new criteria is expected to significantly expand the pool of undocumented immigrants. 'If you're looking for the definition of 'self-fulling prophesy,' look no further than Trump's stream of policies that intentionally take legal status away from people so they go from being documented, to undocumented and then are fair game for being deported,' said Angela Kelley, an adviser at the American Immigration Law Center and a former senior adviser on immigration for the Department of Homeland Security under the Biden administration. 'The Trump administration is creating a larger class of undocumented people by literally de-legalizing them and taking away their work authorization early,' Karen Tumlin, founder and director of Justice Action Center, said in a statement. By 'delegalizing' Camey and others, Trump has drastically hiked the number of people who could be deported through a sped-up process, while helping his administration meet its goal of ridding the country of 1 million immigrants a year. 'What happened to his promise of targeting criminals? He's had to create larger numbers of targets and even then, the folks aren't criminals, because they're here legally,' Kelley said. On May 30, the Supreme Court allowed the administration to strip more than 500,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela (CHNV) of the permission they were given to live and work in the U.S. temporarily through the CHNV parole program. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has issued a notice saying that the administration has terminated the parole and authorization to work for those in the CHNV program directed them to 'self-deport' immediately. Immigration groups have contested the administration's assertion that the Biden program is unlawful. Guerline Jozef, executive director and founder of Haitian Bridge Alliance, said in a statement that hundreds of thousands in that program had trusted the U.S. government and had undergone extended vetting to secure lawful status. 'Now they are having the rug violently pulled out from under them,' Jozef said. The Trump administration has stated that the humanitarian parole granted through the CHNV program didn't sufficiently improve border security and made interior enforcement more difficult. It argues that parole was meant to be more narrowly used. When the Supreme Court allowed Trump to terminate the CHNV program, the administration said in a statement that the participants were 'poorly vetted' and were given opportunities to compete for American jobs. The Trump administration said the programs were promoted despite fraud within them. The Department of Homeland Security referred NBC News to the same statement in response to a request for additional comment. NBC News also has contacted the White House seeking comment. Steve Camarota, director of research for the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for immigration restrictions, supports the administration's actions. Perpetuating previous parole policies 'is creating the situation that caused the border crisis' under Biden, Camarota said. 'If you don't move to end them, then you are not very serious about dealing with this reality.' Critics of Trump's policies point out that while the administration has focused on more deportations, it hasn't expanded the number of visas or other mechanisms to legally bring workers into the country or to legalize immigrants who've spent years trying to adjust their immigration status. The business and the agricultural communities have called for more visas and ways to help legalize immigrants in order to expand the pool of workers needed in a number of industries and to keep a viable labor force amid a decline in U.S. birth rates. 'We've just seen no effort to improve legal pathways and, if anything, things have gotten worse,' said Stuart Anderson, executive director for the National Foundation for American Policy, a public policy group focused on trade, immigration and related issues. Anderson noted Trump has made vague comments about legal pathways, such as his suggestion that some agricultural and hotel workers could leave the country and return if their employers' vouched for them. The administration had paused raids involving those workers, but DHS reversed that decision this week. Meanwhile, the administration has instituted travel bans on a number of countries. For people from Haiti, there is essentially a complete ban on travel to the U.S., with bans on temporary visas and immigrant visas, he said. 'They've done nothing to make it easier to get visas and made it harder in many areas, including student visas,' Anderson said. In Haiti, Camey was working to help youth in need and had returned to school to finish her university studies in psychology. But she saw no future for her and her young daughter and no chance to build a life. She was living in rural Fort Liberté, in the northern part of the country, where violence was not as bad as in Port-au-Prince but where gangs were beginning to extend their reach, she told NBC News in her native Creole. 'I felt like I was just existing. There was no future — you can't build anything, not even save enough to buy a car. Some people had it even worse — no food or shelter ... There is truly no future,' she said. Camey was sponsored to come to the U.S. by her aunt, making it possible for her to work in the U.S. and also support her daughter and family in Haiti. 'It felt like a second chance at life. I'm someone who likes to work and has strong willpower. It was a new experience and a new beginning,' Camey said. Expanding the undocumented pool Because the CHNV parole program is temporary — good for up to two years — legally vetted immigrants like Camey and others would have to find other possible ways, such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS) or asylum, to remain in the country. But those other routes might also be difficult. In addition to terminating parole for the hundreds of thousands in the CHNV program, Trump has been trying to revoke the TPS of 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants. He's targeted nearly 300,000 more people from Afghanistan, Cameroon and Haiti who also were granted TPS, which grants protection from deportation and eligibility for work authorization for about six to 18 months and is extendable. More than 900,000 people given permission to come into the country through the Biden administration's CBP One app also have been told to leave the country. Many who entered using the app have asylum claims or are TPS recipients. Some who used the app have been arrested and detained and some have been shipped to El Salvador's notoriously brutal mega prison CECOT. The administration has gone further and wants to yank American citizenship from some people who don't have at least one U.S. citizen or legal resident parent. According to the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, ending birthright citizenship for children with unauthorized parents or other noncitizens, such as those temporarily here, 'would significantly swell the size of the unauthorized population — now and for generations to come.' Specifically, the Trump plan for ending birthright citizenship would increase the unauthorized population by 2.7 million by 2045 and by 5.4 million by 2075, according to a Migration Policy Institute-Penn State analysis. Every year for 50 years, about 255,000 children born in the U.S. would start life without U.S. citizenship, according to MPI-Penn State's analysis. Temporary, not permanent Noting that Trump's actions are being challenged in court, Camarota said the Trump administration learned from the president's first term in the White House that 'you may prevail in court, but you better start now' in trying to remove people who the administration believes should not have been granted entry. He added that the parole and TPS programs that are meant to be temporary don't often end up being temporary 'and that's what we're trying to undo.' 'It's not absurd that the longer people are here, they do have more of a claim on our conscience, but that is what we are trying to avoid,' Camarota said. In the end, he added, the goal is to encourage people to leave. Faced with the prospect of having to return to Haiti, five Haitians who used the Biden parole program to come to the U.S. and were sponsored by Rivly Breus of Miami have relocated to Canada. Others may go to Chile and a few will go to Mexico or the Virgin Islands, Breus said. When the CHNV program opened, Breus and nine other people created a 'sponsor circle' to individually sponsor families. They used their own earnings to initially clothe, house, feed and support them as they found jobs and settled in. They also pooled money to create an emergency fund. In all, the individuals in the circle sponsored 30 people, Breus said. The end of the CHNV program 'saddens me,' she said. 'It's not that these people want to leave their homeland,' Breus said. 'It's a question of survival. These people have been trying to survive their entire lives. A lot of them don't want to give up because giving up means death for them or just being in a position where there is nothing to live for.' Camey, who has filed for Temporary Protected Status, has no other option now but to go to a different country, Breus said. 'I would never stay (here) undocumented,' Camey said. 'All I know is I won't go back to Haiti.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
DHS ends temporary protections for 530K immigrants from these countries
WASHINGTON – The Department of Homeland Security revoked temporary work and residency authorizations for more than 530,000 immigrants under a program the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to end in a late May ruling. The program protected immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela from deportation and provided them work permits. The program is often referred to as CHNV, an acronym that references the immigrants' countries of origin. Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant secretary at DHS, said immigrants were 'poorly vetted' through 'disastrous' programs that allowed them to compete for jobs against American workers. 'Ending the CHNV parole programs, as well as the paroles of those who exploited it, will be a necessary return to common-sense policies, a return to public safety, and a return to America First,' McLaughlin said. The program is one way the Trump administration is restricting entry into the United States. Other strategies include suspending asylum applications, hardening barriers along the southern border, deporting undocumented immigrants and restricting travel from 12 countries. The Biden administration created the program in 2022. But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem announced in March she was canceling the program because of concerns the immigrants would compete for government services and jobs, and because, she said, some of them were criminals. At least three lawsuits challenged Noem's decision. But the Supreme Court ruled May 30 that Noem could end the program. The impact of the decision is uncertain because immigrants could apply for legal status under other programs. DHS is notifying immigrants known as parolees, because their status is temporary, that if they no longer have a lawful status to remain, they must leave the country immediately. If they get stopped, they could be deported. The department has offered undocumented immigrants $1,000 to leave voluntarily through the CBP Home Mobile App. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: DHS ends temporary Biden-era protections for Cubans, Venezuelans
Boston Globe
6 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
With migrants' legal status revoked, employer faces loss of 100-plus workers
But their employer hasn't received any notification about how to proceed, leaving everyone with questions yet to be answered: Do they have to be fired? Will ICE come knocking if they aren't? Could this policy decision ultimately be reversed? Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'We do not intend or seek to be in violation of any laws or orders,' said Chris White, chief executive of Road to Responsibility, which serves 1,000 people across Southeastern Massachusetts. 'We just don't know how we're supposed to do this.' Advertisement The termination of legal status is part of President Trump's massive crackdown on immigrants, many of whom came to the United States legally. The administration and its US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have revoked visas, detained students, staked out court hearings, deported people with no criminal histories, conducted workplace raids, and smashed car windshields to make arrests. Advertisement More than half a million migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela have been admitted to the United States since 2022 as part of a humanitarian parole program known as CHNV, which Trump In March, DHS posted a who runs the nonprofit Pathway for Immigrant Workers. But employers have a strong defense, she said: They don't know what type of parole their employees have. Work permits don't designate if they have CHNV parole, which was issued in their home countries and allowed them to fly directly to the U.S., or if they were paroled at the southern border, a subset of the program that wasn't included in the executive order but has also been subject to individual And asking too many questions about a worker's background could open up employers to discrimination lawsuits. The migrants did everything they were supposed to do, Ditrani said: 'They were vetted … and received a work authorization. Employers invested in training, and they're working. And now poof, they have to go.' Advertisement DHS started sending In response to questions from the Globe, a DHS spokesperson wrote: 'Illegal aliens should use the CBP Home app to fly home for free and receive $1,000 stipend, while preserving the option to return the legal way and live the American dream.' Last week, Trump acknowledged that his aggressive immigration policies were In Massachusetts, people and those with disabilities — the kind of physically demanding, low-wage work many Americans won't do, according to many employers. A spokesperson from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development said the state is assessing the potential impact of the parole program's termination and advised employers to consult with attorneys. White has been doing just that but still remains uncertain about what to do, especially considering that up to 84 more of his Haitian employees will Staffing shortages are a major concern in the human services sector, where demand is growing but employment numbers have declined, according to the 220 human services organizations in Massachusetts. A third of personal care aides in the state are foreign-born, according to the council. Advertisement The lack of information about changes to migrant employees' protected status puts employers in a difficult position, said Bill Yelenak, president of the Providers' Council. 'They're just not aware of when the changes happen … and how it's going to impact their workforce,' he said. Migrant hires with temporary legal protections are the sole reason Road to Responsibility has been able to get back to pre-COVID staffing levels and start growing again, White said. Nearly 60 percent of his 800-person workforce was born in another country. 'These are good, hard-working people who have been paying taxes, following the rules, and filling positions that, frankly, we have not been able to fill otherwise,' he said. Losing more than 100 members of an 800-person workforce would take a heavy toll on the nonprofit. At the very least, it would mean 'blowing the budget' to pay for overtime and relief staff, White said. It could even lead to consolidating programs and requesting waivers to temporarily operate understaffed. 'I'm expecting that I'll be working some direct care shifts myself,' said White, who is 65. White's leadership team is evaluating workers' legal status — those with pending asylum applications can remain in the United States — and hoping that exceptions will be granted for a category of employees who were deemed essential during the pandemic. In February, one of his staff members was picked up by ICE for unknown reasons and deported to the Dominican Republic, White said. Advertisement 'Our workforce is terrified,' he said. These employees provide critical support for people who need help with nearly every aspect of their daily lives. For more independent clients, staffers assist with taking public transit, grocery shopping, and cooking. Workers take them fishing and bowling, encourage interests in photography or art, and administer meds. They also assist with more basic needs, such as toileting, feeding, and mobility, and teach fire safety, nutrition, human rights, and hygiene. Some provide one-on-one care to people with severe behavioral or medical issues, and others work overnight shifts in Road to Responsibility's 52 group homes. Each person's needs are different, and often complex, said Kevin Clark, program director at one of the organization's community-based day services programs. And it takes time, consistency, and familiarity for them to feel safe with their caregivers. Many of the temp agencies Road to Responsibility uses to fill in staffing gaps also rely heavily on Haitians and other immigrants. If the organization can't find enough workers, clients may have to stay home — with no rehabilitation and nothing meaningful to do, said Erica Defreitas, program director at a day habilitation facility. Some of them grew up in institutions, in terrible living conditions, she said: 'We can't go backward.' This story was produced by the Globe's team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter . Katie Johnston can be reached at
