Five months after Linda Couch, LeadingAge’s Senior Vice President for Policy shared plans to intensify  advocacy efforts around the continued and growing need for foreign-born workers in the aging-services sector, our Hill engagement is growing. Our initiatives span both parties and a range of legislative approaches, with a focus on providing input and support for emerging proposals

Broadly speaking, our work now builds on the advocacy approach broached in our 2019 IMAGINE initiative and refined again in the Immigration Imperative white paper, released September 2024. Collectively organized under the Immigration Advancement Project, we aim to inform both elected officials in Congress and the general public of the scope and importance of the contributions foreign-born workers make to the aging services sector today, and to emphasize that with America’s rapidly aging population the need for immigrant staff will only grow.

Our Congressional focus aligns with ongoing strategic communications initiatives, which have yielded widespread media coverage in national outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and more, all centered around members telling their stories. This engagement is making a difference in our advocacy with members of Congress, helping us to connect what can seem to be an abstract discussion of workforce planning to direct impacts on their constituents and communities. In recent months, on our own and in with like-minded partners, including the American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) and the Critical Labor Coalition (CLC), we’ve drawn on member examples in meetings with congressional offices and committee staff on both sides of the aisle, and engaged on a number of legislative proposals including:

• Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) on S 4814, which would direct the Department of Homeland Security to designate Haiti for Temporary Protected Status.
• Representative Lloyd Smucker (R-PA) on HR 5494, the Essential Workers for Economic Advancement Act, which would create a new visa category for temporary, non-agricultural workers.
• Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) on S 2759, the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, which would recapture unused employment-based visas for nurses and physicians.
• Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) on S 5197, the State Sponsored Visa Pilot Program Act, which would let states sponsor workers for visas directly.
• Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-NM) on HR 9234, the Careworker Visa Act, which would establish a new visa pathway specifically for direct care workers.
• Representative María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) on HR 4393 the Dignity Act, which would overhaul the U.S. immigration system by combining enhanced border security measures with expanded pathways.

These bills cover a variety of mechanisms that would benefit aging services providers—temporary protected status (TPS) designation, a new visa category, the recapture of existing visas, state-level sponsorship, a sector-specific visa, and even a large-scale overhaul of the system, reflecting the range of solutions LeadingAge is working to advance on the Hill.

Our efforts go well beyond engaging with just those offices, however. Workforce and immigration issues were central to many discussions in more than 100 meetings with congressional offices taken during our national Lobby Day on April 22, 2026. We’ve engaged current congressional leadership on the committees with direct jurisdiction over immigration policy, including staff-level conversations on the House Judiciary Committee and the Problem Solvers Caucus, to ensure the aging services sector has a voice in how immigration policy discussions move forward. Taken together, these efforts reflect a sustained presence across both chambers, both parties, and the full range of forums where immigration policy is shaped.

Member participation

 In addition to the Hill meetings, members and residents nationwide are engaging. A single action alert launched in July generated 630 messages to congressional offices. In Iowa, LeadingAge member Mill Pond welcomed Representative Zach Nunn, and residents and leaders from LeadingAge members joined advocates and lawmakers at a Capitol Hill press conference in April to urge Congress to support foreign born workers. Residents in other member communities have written to, or called, their members of Congress as part of the Care for Seniors, Care for America campaign.  Many other members have shared with us privately how changes to immigration policy have impacted their teams. Meetings and technical discussions about bills can help shape policy, but constituent stories are what ultimately moves legislation forward.

Though legislation moves slowly, and most of what’s described here is still in committee, we’re educating Congress and the public on our issues, and garnering support. Every meeting, every technical discussion about a bill, every member who picks up the phone or hosts a site visit, and every resident who engages, is part of the same effort: ensuring the people crafting immigration policy understand what it means for the provision of care for older Americans. To tell your story, or to learn more about engaging with Congress and/or the media, contact Associate Director for Immigration Advancement Shane Myers.