Daniela Garcia

As COVID-19 claims lives across New Jersey, our state, like many others, is confronting an extreme and terrifying shortage of healthcare workers. Last week, Gov.Phil Murphy put out an urgent call for volunteers with qualified medical training and experience, after announcing that the state had its largest one-day increase in COVID-related deaths. Even before the pandemic, NJ was predicted to experience an estimated shortage of 11,400 nurses by 2030 -- the third largest nursing shortage in the country. So many more lives could be saved if we had more health care professionals licensed to practice in New Jersey.

I’m a future healthcare worker, and I’m ready to jump in and do my part. But I won’t be able to practice unless New Jersey expands access to professional licensing to all qualified applicants, regardless of federal immigration status. Because of out of date, unconstitutional laws on our books, I won’t be able to obtain a license to become a nurse in New Jersey, even though I’ve studied hard and have accumulated years of experience. If I lived in New Mexico or Nevada, this wouldn’t be the case. New Jersey needs to keep up with the more than dozen states that have removed barriers to licensing for immigrants and take action.

My parents brought me to New Brunswick, NJ from Mexico when I was four years old. New Jersey has been my home for as long as I can remember. I’m raising my three kids here, too. I was in high school when I found out about my immigration status. I had always dreamed of helping people. After an experience as a patient care technician, where I tended to dozens of elderly patients, measuring and monitoring vital signs, I was sure that I wanted to pursue nursing. My guidance counselors questioned why I would pursue nursing if I couldn’t be licensed in New Jersey, due to my immigration status. But I applied for and was accepted into the nursing program at Essex County College and won a full-tuition scholarship.

With the spread of COVID-19, I think about the elderly patients and their families I have met as a nursing student and how vulnerable they are right now. It inspires me to see nurses and other health care workers flying to the East Coast to lend their skills during the pandemic. It also pains me to know that I am right here and wouldn’t be able to use my skills to help.

New Jersey can fill urgent healthcare worker shortages and fight back against attacks on immigrants by passing legislation to expand access to professional and occupational licenses for all qualified residents, regardless of immigration status.

Thousands of immigrants attend NJ high schools, colleges and universities with dreams of becoming nurses, physician assistants, doctors and more. Yet, we are forced to find other work or move to another state because of the current outdated citizenship requirements for many professional or occupational licenses. If the U.S Supreme Court decides to end the DACA program, as it is expected to do, thousands more young professionals will lose their status.

In the face of worker shortages in healthcare and other occupations, states have increasingly turned to the legions of hardworking immigrants who have already earned the qualifications to take on these roles. Many states -- from deep red Arkansas to bright blue California -- have lifted barriers to professional and occupational licenses for immigrants.

To ensure our state’s economic growth, to provide meaningful career and occupational opportunities for our residents -- and to address the worst public health crisis in a generation -- it is vital for the New Jersey state legislature to act.

In just a few days, thousands of people responded to Governor Murphy’s call for people with medical experience -- retired individuals, students, and individuals who were never licensed in New Jersey. Our state is leading in efforts to license qualified individuals, but we must do more. COVID-19 will not be the last pandemic. We can act now to help ensure New Jersey has the capacity to fight the next one by supporting immigrants ready to serve our state.

Daniela Garcia is a second-year nursing student at Essex County College and a member of Make the Road New Jersey.