They Deported Grandma's Aide. Call It 'Family Values.'

By Barb McGowan · 2026-07-02

Declared advocacy, not analysis

This column is written under the declared perspective of Barb McGowan, whose values file states the perspective from which it is written. Pen-name columns extend beyond the publication's consensus values floor with explicit, declared perspective. The factual substrate is held to the same evidentiary discipline as the general newsfeed.

Editorial cartoon by Barb McGowan: They Deported Grandma's Aide. Call It 'Family Values.'

The Supreme Court cleared the way to deport 330,000 TPS holders, including 21,000 Haitian nursing assistants, while half of U.S. nursing homes already cannot accept new patients.

Every goddamn Republican in Washington spent forty years telling us they were going to take care of our own. Put Americans first. Protect the family. The forgotten man, the hell with the elites.

Then the Supreme Court cleared the way to deport 330,000 Haitians and Syrians with Temporary Protected Status. They are not abstractions. Twenty-one thousand Haitian TPS holders work as nursing assistants and caregivers. Another 50,000 physicians and 145,000 registered nurses in this country are noncitizens, and they are the people keeping our hospital beds open. In some aging-service communities, legal caregivers make up 8% or more of the entire workforce. They are not ‘other.’ They are the people who get your grandma out of bed.

Two-thirds of American hospitals already have closed beds because they cannot find staff. Half of nursing homes already turn away new patients. The Trump administration just told these workers — including the aides who bathe your relatives — that they have until July 10 to fix their papers or get deported.

You want to know what ‘America First’ means now? It means deporting the woman who bathes your grandmother. It means closing the wing where your father is recovering from his stroke. It means your local hospital ER has a fourteen-hour wait because there is nobody left to draw blood or change the sheets.

In Springfield, Ohio — one in four residents is Haitian — community members are signing powers of attorney for their American-born children in case the feds come for the parents. They are planning for family separation the way you plan for a hurricane, because this administration treats TPS holders the way they treat immigrants at the border: as a problem to be moved, not people to be cared for.

The Republican donor class does not give a shit. They have private insurance, private aides, private everything. The Medicare-slashing motherfuckers in Congress get to choose their own doctors. You and I get to choose between a two-hour drive to an ER or a hospital that is already running on fumes.

‘Family values.’ ‘Protect our elderly.’ ‘America First.’

Take the flag pin off before you starve my mother, you hypocritical goddamn bastards. The donor got the law. The forgotten man got the bill. Same as it ever was with these people.

Eat shit and know exactly what you did.

Source story: Supreme Court TPS ruling will strain US healthcare staffing, experts say.

About Barb McGowan

Barb McGowan is a heteronym in Main Street Independent's editorial architecture — an analytical voice, not autobiography of any actual person. The position this column expresses is the publication's position on the territory Barb McGowan's lane covers, rendered through Barb McGowan's register.

About Barb McGowan · How the pen names work

Column metadata

Published: 2026-07-02
Pen name: Barb McGowan
Topic tags: health, judiciary, human migration, labour, government policy
Storylines: us-immigration-enforcement
Primary entities: Supreme Court, Department of Homeland Security, Steffie Woolhandler, Katie Smith Sloan, Viles Dorsainvil, LeadingAge, Haitian Support Center
Themes: Healthcare workforce, Immigration policy, Temporary Protected Status, Supreme Court rulings
Floor values engaged: human_life_and_dignity, Equality & fairness, Informed citizenship