Marie, a certified nursing assistant, was removed from the schedule at her Boston nursing home by her boss Colin after a company-wide HR decision to cut all TPS-affected employees. She was given a choice: leave immediately or finish her shift. She chose to finish — without telling a single co-worker why it was her last day.
Marie had been a CNA at the same Boston nursing home since 2014 — twelve years, in a profession where the average tenure in the US is just two years. She had started on a salary of $10,000. Over time, her employers recognized her work and raised her pay each year; by the time she left, her salary had doubled.
The decision to remove her had nothing to do with her performance. It was an administrative call made at the company level, sweeping out every employee whose immigration status was tied to Temporary Protected Status. Colin, her direct manager, carried out the directive. He told her she could go home right then, or she could stay and finish her shift.
She stayed. And she said nothing to her colleagues about what was happening or why. The people she had worked alongside for over a decade had no idea that the shift they were sharing was her last. You can hear the full episode on This American Life on Listenly.
Marie's story sits inside a much larger number. When the Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for Haiti, more than 300,000 Haitians lost their legal right to work in the United States. TPS had in some cases been extended to certain countries for more than 25 years — it is not a temporary status in practice, even if it is in name.
What Marie's story adds to that statistic is texture. It shows how the policy translated into a single afternoon: a manager delivering a message, an employee choosing to finish her shift with dignity, and a roomful of co-workers who never knew.
"When I started here in 2014, my salary was $10,000. My salary was very low. Every year, they saw the way I'm working and the work I've done. And every year they gave me more."
Marie — Haitian CNA, Boston nursing home, as reported in This American Life, episode 895
The Trump administration's termination of TPS for Haitians affected more than 300,000 people. Many of those individuals had been living and working in the US legally under that status for years.
TPS is a status given to a country all at once, allowing eligible people from that country to live and legally work in the US if their home country has experienced conditions that make safe return impossible. In some cases, it has been extended for more than 25 years.
Dr. Fuchs, who has scoliosis, maintained an intense kneeling and crouching position with her hand inserted up to her forearm inside the patient for the duration of the nearly 90-minute intervention.
This story was told in episode 895 of This American Life. Hear it in full on Listenly.
Listen to the episode on Listenly