Amazon warehouse workers lose jobs after Trump immigration crackdown

Daphnee Poteau, a Haitian who came to the U.S in 2023, began working for Amazon last year at a returns center in Indianapolis. While packing up boxes, she met her husband Kristopher Vincent, who’s been at the site, known as IND8, since 2013.

Last month, Poteau was contacted by the Department of Homeland Security, after the Trump administration canceled humanitarian immigration programs that allowed participants to live and work legally in the U.S. for two years while applying for permanent status.

A notice from DHS told Poteau that her parole program was being terminated. Her last day at Amazon was June 28. She’s among a group of warehouse workers whose jobs have been eliminated since DHS revoked the parole program that was created during the Biden administration.

While Poteau tries to secure a spousal visa, her future in the U.S. is uncertain. She and Vincent, who’s from Indiana, said they’re concerned about being able to afford rent and costly immigration fees.

“We’re taking it one day at a time, but it does leave me stressed that they’re going to come and try to get her, even though she does have an asylum case pending in court,” Vincent said in an interview.

“Everything we’ve seen in the news shows they flagrantly no longer care what the laws say,” Vincent said.

Poteau and her terminated co-workers had been protected under programs that provided Haitians, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with temporary legal status in the U.S. Many of the employees at IND8 are Haitian, a large enough contingent that some of the morning staff meetings are translated into Creole, Vincent said.

Amazon last month began asking staffers who came to the U.S. under the Biden-era program to provide updated work permits within a certain timeframe or they would be put on unpaid leave, according to documents viewed by CNBC.

Several workers who spoke to CNBC said they were dismissed by Amazon in late June after they couldn’t get new work authorizations.

Amazon declined to say how many employees were let go following the changes in immigration policy, but spokesperson Richard Rocha said the company prepared for potential staffing impacts due to changes in work authorization programs, and made adjustments to be in compliance with the law.

“We’re supporting employees impacted by the government’s recent changes in immigration policy,” Rocha said in a statement. “Over the past few months, we’ve been in regular communication with these employees about the changes and are ensuring they’re aware of all available resources.”

The company has provided impacted employees with information about where to find free or low-cost legal services, access to counseling support and other resources, Rocha said.

A DHS spokesperson pointed to the agency’s announcement terminating the humanitarian parole program.

As part of the Trump administration’s broad immigration crackdown, DHS has eliminated not just the humanitarian parole program. It’s also ended separate programs that provided temporary protected status to Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Hondurans seeking refuge from their native countries, which have suffered from armed conflict and humanitarian crises. Last week, a federal judge ruled the Trump administration can’t revoke the temporary protected status, or TPS, of Haitian migrants. The White House said it will appeal the ruling.

Amazon is far from alone. Other companies including Walmart and Disney have been forced to fire employees or put them on leave in order to comply with shifting federal policies.

Among private employers in the U.S., only Walmart has a bigger workforce than Amazon. Most of the e-commerce giant’s 1.56 million employees globally are concentrated in its warehouse operations.

The terminations started just as Amazon was gearing up for its annual Prime Day discount blitz, which began on Tuesday and lasts four days. The event is typically one of the busiest periods of the year for Amazon warehouse and delivery employees, alongside the holiday shopping season.

Amazon has counted on immigrants to meet a big part of its staffing needs. In 2022, the company set a goal to hire 5,000 refugees and other forcibly displaced individuals by the end of 2024.

While Trump’s policies create a challenge for large employers like Amazon, the real devastation is being felt by the immigrant workers. Those who now find themselves unemployed and lacking documentation are at a higher risk of being targeted for deportation unless they can secure an alternative form of legal status.

Christopher Lubin, an Amazon warehouse worker in Delaware, lost his job at the company on June 27, a day before Poteau received her notice.

“We have done everything legally in this country,” said Lubin, 24, who is also from Haiti. “We haven’t committed fraud. We go to school, we work, and we pay taxes.”

DHS said it was revoking protections for Haitian nationals after a review by Secretary Kristi Noem determined “country conditions have improved to the point where Haitians can return home in safety.”

The U.S. granted TPS for Haitian nationals following a catastrophic earthquake in 2008 that destroyed much of the nation’s infrastructure. In 2024, the TPS designation was extended through February 2026, as the country faced “rapidly deteriorating security, human rights and humanitarian” conditions, according to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Armed gangs control the majority of Port-au-Prince and violence has spread beyond the capital in recent months. About 10 individuals from Haiti lost their jobs at an Amazon warehouse in Spokane, Washington, after DHS revoked the TPS program, said Katia Jasmin, executive director of Creole Resources, which provides support to Haitian immigrants in the region.

Serge, who asked to have his full name withheld out of fear of being targeted for deportation, came to the U.S. from Haiti nearly two years ago and secured a job at the Spokane warehouse as a packer. The situation in Haiti was dire when he left and it remains unsafe today, Serge said.

“I witnessed violence and trauma, including the loss of family members who were killed,” Serge said. “Others were displaced from their homes and are now homeless. I genuinely feared for my life.”

In desperation, he said he sought a safer future and secured a sponsor that allowed him to come to the U.S. legally. It’s “unjust” that Haitians are now being ordered to return to their home country when it’s plagued with violence, Serge said.

“We’re not just recipients of economic support,” he said. “We’re also contributors who help drive the economy.”