A Message From Your Union Leadership
What We’re Doing to Support Non-Citizen Immigrant Union Members
Are you in TPS or DACA status, or are you an employment-based visa holder? Worried about your employment future as a Registered Nurse or Licensed Professional due to your status as a non-citizen immigrant? Read below to find out what we’re doing to help our members.
More than 1 million non-citizen immigrants work in the U.S. healthcare industry, accounting for nearly 9% of workers in hospital settings in California alone. They work in roles that are critical and in-demand, including as Physicians, Registered Nurses, Licensed Professionals, Medical Assistants, Technicians and more.
Although we don’t keep track and have no way of knowing the number, we do know that some of our Union brothers and sisters are non-citizen immigrants, working with legal authorization under Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status, H1-B visas, EB-3 visas, or some form of temporary work authorization such as Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
Our members with these statuses face the same challenges as all healthcare workers, including unsafe staffing, workplace violence, harassment, burnout, moral injury, and more. Over the last two years, many immigrant workers have met additional obstacles as immigration policy has been upended. Immigrants with the legal right to work and to reside in the U.S. have encountered higher hurdles and longer wait times to maintain their status. Hundreds of thousands of workers under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) have seen their protections yanked away overnight.
Get Support If you are a non-citizen immigrant member of SEIU 121RN, and you have questions or concerns about your status, please reach out to Oscar Garcia at garciao@seiu121rn.org. |
This year, DACA status for two St. John’s Regional Medical Center Nurses expired while their application was being processed, leaving them unable to legally work. These Nurses did everything by the book, including applying early to renew their status. (See VC Star: DACA delays push local workers out of jobs, stoke ICE fears.)
Fortunately, the Union was able to intervene on behalf of these members, by helping them navigate the process and reaching out to elected officials who helped to get their applications expedited due to the nature of their work. It was stressful and had a negative economic impact for these RNs while they were unemployed, but they were happy to get the news of the expedited review and approval of their applications and were able to return to work. As your Union’s President and Executive Director, we are proud of the work our staff team did to help. We hope to do the same for others.
A Personal Note From Leo Perez, SEIU 121RN President I came to the U.S. as a child in the 1980s, long before DACA existed. I gained legal status as part of the Reagan administration’s amnesty program. If I came as a child today, I don’t know what my fate would be. Immigration policy is an issue (one of many) that has come to divide us, but, because of my own experience, I focus on the people who are impacted. When hard-working healthcare professionals are hurt by immigration policies, it hits even closer to home. Whatever your opinion is about the policy, I hope we can all agree that all of us are members of a union family–and we are stronger when we fight for each other. |
In Unity,
Leo Perez
President, SEIU 121RN
Rosanna Mendez
Executive Director, SEIU 121RN
