“Immigrant workers are not just helping; they are essential to keeping this industry running”
May Day celebrates the achievements of workers and the labor movement – and that includes the millions of immigrants who help keep our country running year round.
We recognize and honor the HEALTH CARE WORKERS who keep our communities healthy. In hospital settings, 17% of clinical workers are immigrants, specializing in diagnosing and treating patients. “Among clinical occupations, immigrants represent a relatively high share of physicians working in hospitals (27%),” KFF said last year. “About one in five (19%) physicians are naturalized citizens and another 8% are noncitizen immigrants.
These professionals include the nearly 300,000 Black immigrants who work as physicians, registered nurses, and home health aides. Among Haitian immigrants alone, more than 100,000 work as healthcare workers. And as the U.S. continues to face a shortage in healthcare and other essential industries – the American Hospital Association projects a shortage of about 100,000 critical health care workers by 2028 – it’s immigrants who will be essential in bolstering this critical labor force.
We recognize and honor the CAREGIVERS who watch over our elderly and disabled loved ones, children, and others requiring regular assistance. “They are the quiet force holding our care system together, providing care, love, stability, and education,” the National Women’s Law Center said last year. “In 2019, 36.5% of all home health aides in the United States were immigrants, a rate that was twice their share of the U.S. workforce overall (17.1%),” the American Immigration Council said in 2023. “This includes undocumented workers, who made up an estimated 6.9% of home health aides and 4.4% of personal care aides.”
Gina Policard, a home health worker originally from Haiti, told Documented last year that she initially began her career as a way to pay the bills, but then fell in love with her work and her patients. “But I love the job because I love taking care of people the same way I do for my family,” she said.
We recognize and honor the EDUCATORS who work tirelessly to prepare our children for their future. This includes an estimated 15,000 teachers who are protected by DACA. “DACA-recipient teachers relate firsthand to the estimated 620,000 undocumented K-1 2 students, who confide in them about their experiences in immigrant families,” the 19th reported last year. “They show youth that regardless of legal status, it’s possible to attain one’s professional goals.”
Among these educators is Los Angeles Unified School District history teacher Angélica Reyes, who was brought to the U.S. when she was just an infant. “My immigration status inspires both my undocumented and documented students because they know all the obstacles that are faced by folks with my immigration status can be overcome,” she said. “They know that if I could do it, that’s something that they could do as well.”
We recognize and honor the FARMWORKERS who feed us rain or shine and are the backbone of the agricultural industry. Without their skilled labor, we simply wouldn’t be able to eat.
“Immigrant farmworkers make up an estimated 73% of agriculture workers in the United States,” with approximately half of this population lacking legal status, FWD.us said in 2022. “Farm labor is absolutely essential work that puts food on our tables across the country, powers the economy and supports our communities, from dairy farms in Wisconsin to strawberry fields in Florida and apple orchards in Washington. All together, food and agriculture sector is a $1.053 trillion industry.”
Despite their critical role in the lives of all Americans, many of these essential workers remain vulnerable due to poor working conditions, low wages, and, for those lacking legal status, the ongoing threat of mass detention and deportation. “Undocumented farm workers make up approximately 50% of the farm labor workforce,” FWD.us said. In California, various estimates put that number anywhere from 60% to as high as 75%.,
We recognize and honor the CONSTRUCTION WORKERS who are quite literally building our future through their essential labor. “Immigrants make up nearly 30% of the national construction workforce. In states like California and Texas, immigrant workers account for 40% or more of construction labor,” the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) said last year. “The U.S. construction industry employs nearly 1.6 million undocumented immigrants, according to reports based on U.S. Census data and labor surveys.”
But, like farmworkers, these essential laborers carry out their work at great risk due to extreme weather and workplace hazards. All six victims of 2024’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse – Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, Carlos Daniel Hernández Estrella, Miguel Ángel Luna González, José Mynor López, and Maynor Yasir Suazo-Sandova – were Latin American immigrants who had called the Maryland area their new home.
We recognize and honor the HOSPITALITY WORKERS who are key to tourism and local economies all over the country. “Immigrant workers are not just helping; they are essential to keeping this industry running,” ABIC said, noting that one in three hotel and lodging workers is an immigrant. Immigrants are also leaders in this industry, owning 43% of motels and small hotels, 37% of restaurants, and one in three new hospitality businesses, the organization said.
We recognize and honor IMMIGRANT WORKERS EVERYWHERE, who through their vast financial contributions help sustain our public schools, libraries, fire departments, and essential federal programs like Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance to the benefit of us all. These workers paid $651.9 billion in tax contributions in 2023, including $419.8 billion in federal tax contributions and $232.1 billion in local and state tax contributions.
This May Day, let’s remember that these workers and neighbors are not only an essential thread in the fabric of America, we simply wouldn’t be able to succeed without them.
