Since the earliest labor movements in America, immigration law has operated in tandem with workforce need. From the Chinese railroad workers in the 19th century to the Bracero program during World War II, and more recently the healthcare professionals recruited during the pandemic, the nation’s labor supply has long been bolstered by immigrant labor. But policy has rarely favored permanence. Workers are brought in when needed, then quietly pushed to the margins.
Today, that same dynamic is playing out across hospitals and public schools. Administrators rely heavily on immigrant workers, often without realizing their precarious legal footing. Custodial staff, paraprofessionals, food service workers, and even nurses may be working under temporary statuses. The risk of losing them is real. The solution, though underused, already exists within federal law.
The PERM Process: Lawful And Accessible
The PERM process, or Program Electronic Review Management, allows employers to sponsor foreign-born employees for permanent residency. It is not a loophole. It is a formal labor certification program under the Department of Labor, designed to ensure that U.S. employers can fill critical roles when no qualified domestic worker is available. Once certified, the employer may initiate the green card process on the worker’s behalf.
More than 100,000 PERM applications were filed last year. The majority came from large corporations in industries like tech and finance. Yet, public institutions despite experiencing record vacancies, make up a small fraction of those filings.
Hillary Walsh, an immigration attorney and the founder of New Frontier Immigration Law, says the disconnect is widespread. “Schools and hospitals have the legal right to sponsor their own staff,” she says. “But many administrators don’t realize it because they’ve been led to believe that immigration law is too complex or reserved for high-wage sectors.”
A Legal Option That Meets A Practical Crisis
Staffing shortages in healthcare and education are no longer episodic. They are structural. According to the American Hospital Association, the United States will face a shortage of up to 3.2 million healthcare workers by 2026. Public school districts report similar concerns, especially in special education and multilingual classrooms.
At the same time, immigrants already account for over 25 percent of direct care workers and significant portions of school-based support staff. Many are legally present under DACA, TPS, or visa extensions. But none of these provide a path to permanent residency.
The result is a fragile status quo. Workers live with uncertainty. Employers risk sudden vacancies. Communities lose familiar, trusted faces.
Walsh describes it as a missed opportunity. “The PERM process is there for precisely this situation,” she says. “It’s how institutions retain the people they cannot afford to lose.”
It Is Not Charity. It Is Retention.
Sponsoring an employee for a green card is not an act of charity. It is a practical investment in long-term staffing. Turnover costs in healthcare and education are high. Time lost to recruitment, training, and onboarding can be debilitating. In contrast, retaining an employee through legal sponsorship strengthens institutional knowledge, team cohesion, and community trust.
Employers often assume that PERM is too expensive or complicated. In practice, it involves publicizing the job opening, documenting recruitment efforts, and submitting a labor certification. The process is technical but manageable, especially with the support of experienced legal counsel.
Walsh notes that New Frontier Immigration Law has worked with schools and healthcare systems across the country to complete the process. “We’ve filed petitions for nurses, aides, cafeteria workers, even administrative staff,” she says. “When you add up what it costs to replace those roles, sponsorship is not only doable. It’s strategic.”
The Moral Weight Of Inaction
When institutions hesitate to use lawful sponsorship mechanisms, the cost is measured not just in vacancies but in erosion. Staff leave quietly. Relationships dissolve. Cultural competency, language access, and continuity of care fade with them. The loss is rarely documented, but deeply felt.
New Frontier Immigration Law has seen these moments unfold in real time. Hillary Walsh and her team have advised school administrators and healthcare leaders who only realized the PERM process existed after a valued employee was already gone. Their work underscores a difficult truth: without legal stability, employers risk losing the very people who anchor their institutions.
Employers who rely on immigrant workers should be asking hard questions. Who on our staff is here under temporary status? What happens if they cannot renew it? What legal tools do we already have that could offer stability?
These are not abstract concerns. They shape the future of classrooms, clinics, and communities. They define who stays, who leaves, and who gets to build a life from the work they already do.
Leadership Is The Willingness To Act
No school district or hospital executive can single-handedly change federal immigration policy. But they can choose to use it. And many already have, with support from legal teams like the one at New Frontier Immigration Law, who guide institutions through the process of retaining immigrant staff through lawful sponsorship.
The law permits action. The question is whether decision-makers are willing to take it.
By using the PERM process, employers do more than fill a position. They make permanence possible. They give a trusted employee the chance to stay. They tell their communities that consistency matters, that care matters, that people matter.
This is not about politics. It is about responsibility. And as Hillary Walsh has said to many clients, “You already trust this person with your students or your patients. Why not trust them with a future?”
That future begins with one conversation, in one office, when someone finally says, “We’re not letting them go.”
