Who will keep America working?

This week, hundreds of thousands of Haitians living in the United States under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) are confronting a frightening reality: Their legal authorization to work is set to expire as the Trump administration moves to dismantle the decades-old humanitarian program.

For many Americans, that may sound like another immigration story. But it is also a healthcare story; a hospitality story; a construction story; a retail story; and, perhaps most importantly, a caregiving story. Because while the national immigration debate has focused almost exclusively on who should remain in the United States, it has largely ignored another question: Who will do the work if they cannot?

According to new economic data, approximately 330,000 Haitians currently live in the United States under TPS, with 200,000 already participating in the American workforce. Together, they contribute an estimated $5.9 billion annually to the U.S. economy, while paying $805 million in federal and payroll taxes, and another $755 million in state and local taxes every year.

Those are impressive numbers, but numbers alone do not tell the story.

The real story is found in the jobs these workers perform every day, according to FWD.US data. Across America, Haitian TPS holders prepare nearly 880,000 meals daily as cooks and restaurant workers. They care for 65,000 patients each day as nursing assistants. They deliver 900,000 packages, serve 1 million retail customers, clean 60,000 hotel rooms, care for 12,000 children and aging Americans, harvest crops, repair vehicles, manage apartment buildings, and help keep businesses operating across the country.

In Florida, where the nation’s largest Haitian TPS population resides, the impact is even more significant. Nearly 158,000 Haitian TPS holders call Florida home, including approximately 93,000 workers who contribute $2.6 billion annually to the state’s economy while paying more than $600 million in combined federal, payroll, state, and local taxes. They include 16,000 restaurant workers, 12,000 agricultural workers, 8,000 warehouse and stock employees, 5,000 security guards, and 4,000 nursing assistants.

These are not abstract statistics; they are the people preparing meals in our restaurants. They are the caregivers helping elderly Americans remain in their homes; they are the workers stocking grocery shelves, cleaning hotel rooms, delivering packages, and helping build our communities.

If their work authorizations expire, the consequences will not be limited to immigrant families. Hospitals will still need nursing assistants; hotels will still need housekeepers; restaurants will still need cooks and servers; construction companies will still need workers, and the elderly will still need caregivers. Employers already struggling to fill many of these positions will once again find themselves searching for workers.

The ripple effects extend beyond the workplace. According to the same analysis, 50,000 U.S.-citizen children depend on parents with Haitian TPS, and without that income, an estimated 25,000 American children could be pushed into poverty.

Every nation has the sovereign right to determine its immigration policy. Reasonable people can disagree about how long TPS should continue. However, public policy should also confront practical reality.

If hundreds of thousands of experienced workers lose their legal authorization to work at once, what is the plan for the industries that depend on them?

Who will care for the elderly? Who will staff the nursing homes? Who will prepare the meals? Who will stock the shelves? Who will keep America’s hotels, farms, warehouses, and construction sites running?

Those are not rhetorical questions; they are economic questions, and they deserve answers, because this debate is no longer simply about who gets to remain in America. It is also about who keeps America working.

Felicia J. Persaud is the founder and publisher of NewsAmericasNow.com, the only daily syndicated newswire and digital platform dedicated exclusively to Caribbean Diaspora and Black immigrant news across the Americas.