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Defending Immigrants/Policy & Research/Immigration/Administrative Policy

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) Terminations
What You Need to Know

1| In the wake of the Haiti and Syria court case, the Trump administration is moving to terminate projections for hundreds of thousands of people who cannot safely return to their home countries

Since taking office, the Trump administration has moved to formally terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 13 countries, impacting more than one million people who have been living in the U.S. with protection and work authorization while conditions in their home countries are unsafe for return. 

All of the terminations have been challenged in court, with plaintiffs arguing that the terminations were discriminatory and that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not follow the legally required process to terminate the designations, including incomplete or inaccurate assessments of conditions in those countries. Courts have allowed all of the terminations (Afghanistan, Burma, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen) to go into full effect while the cases continue. 

Following a recent Supreme Court ruling (discussed below), more TPS terminations have been allowed to go into effect. These terminations will strip TPS holders of their work permits and force them to leave the U.S., despite the overwhelming evidence that conditions in their home countries remain unsafe for return. For example, Syria, Somalia, and South Sudan are in active conflict, Burma is under military rule, and Haiti and Ethiopia face widespread violence and displacement. The State Department maintains Level 4 “Do Not Travel” warnings for all of these countries.

As of the time of publication, the posted expiration dates for TPS work authorizations for Burma, Ethiopia, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen have all passed.

2| 170,000 TPS holders from El Salvador could be next

El Salvador’s TPS designation is set to expire on September 9, 2026. The Trump administration could terminate this designation, as it attempted in the first term, thereby ending protections for more than 170,000 people who have lived in the U.S. for a quarter of a century.

TPS law requires the administration to periodically review country conditions to determine if existing TPS designations should remain in place. The administration is supposed to make a determination at least 60 days before the expiration date, and to publicly publish that decision “on a timely basis.” If no determination is made, the designation should automatically extend for six months. As of this publishing, no determination has been announced

Approximately 170,000 people from El Salvador currently hold TPS. El Salvador’s designation has been in place since 2001, meaning these TPS holders have lived in the U.S. for at least 25 years. Some 152,000 Salvadoran TPS holders are in the U.S. workforce, contributing an estimated $5.4 billion to the U.S. economy each year, and annually pay $1.5 billion in combined federal, state, and local taxes. They have built lives and families here, including 150,000 U.S. citizen children.

The first Trump administration had attempted to terminate TPS protections for El Salvador (along with Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, and Sudan), but legal challenges kept the protections in place; under the Biden administration, these terminations were rescinded and designations were extended.

3| The Supreme Court just gave President Trump permission to ignore legal requirements when ending TPS designations

On June 25, 2026 the Supreme Court issued a 6-3 ruling in Mullin v. Doe, a case challenging the terminations of TPS for Haiti and Syria. The decision granted the administration permission to move forward with implementing the terminations. 

Even more consequential, the ruling essentially establishes that TPS terminations are largely unreviewable by the courts, meaning that, even if the administration does not fully and accurately evaluate country conditions before terminating protections, there is very little legal recourse to challenge those decisions.

The Trump administration now has permission from the Supreme Court to move forward with terminations for any of the remaining TPS countries, even if conditions in those countries are demonstrably unsafe for return.

It is very likely that the few remaining active TPS designations (El Salvador, Lebanon, Sudan, and Ukraine) could be terminated by the end of the year.

4| TPS is a hugely successful program that boosts the economy and keeps families together

Temporary Protected Status provides significant protections for families, allowing them to support themselves, improve their economic condition, keep their families together, and more fully participate in their local communities.

Congress established TPS as part of the Immigration Act of 1990 to provide temporary reprieve from deportation and work authorization to certain immigrants who are unable to return to their home countries because of war, natural disaster, or other extraordinary circumstances. 

FWD.us estimates that, as of early 2025, nearly 1.3 million individuals in the U.S. are TPS holders. TPS holders live with 390,000 U.S. citizen children and more than 410,000 U.S. citizen adults, using their legal work authorization to support their families and communities.

TPS holders contribute about $29 billion annually to the U.S. economy, in addition to the payment of $7.8 billion in combined federal, state, and local taxes. And, since 2001, TPS holders have contributed an estimated $262 billion in total, actual dollars to the U.S. economy. This includes an estimated $20 billion contributed to Social Security during the past 25 years, helping sustain the national Social Security account for all Americans.

5| TPS terminations force immigrants out of legal and protected statuses and expose them to deportation

The attacks on TPS are part of a broader effort to expose as many immigrants in the U.S. as possible, including those with legal and protected statuses, to deportation and family separation.

Since the start of the second Trump administration, nearly 1 million immigrants have already lost protections and work authorization, including DACA recipients, humanitarian parolees, TPS holders, asylum applicants, and others. Hundreds of thousands of people who hold legal status— who registered with the government, passed background checks, and paid fees to do so—now face losing their ability to work and being torn from their families and homes. 

The losses of protection and work authorization has already cost the U.S. economy more than $22 billion in economic contributions and $6 billion in federal, state, and local tax contributions; as more people lose protections, the costs could soar to more than $100 billion. These losses in turn drive up the cost of living for Americans, inflating prices for basic goods and services, housing, and health care.

President Trump is responsible for the consequences of these actions, but Congress has the power to stop them. Congress can start by establishing a permanent pathway to citizenship for TPS holders through the Dream and Promise Act (H.R. 1589) and the SECURE Act (S. 2106). 

Additional Resources

Donate to some of the many organizations supporting directly-impacted communities:

An Everyday Guide to Freedom – Ways that that everyday people can help keep each other free from incarceration and detention 

Temporary Protected Status – Policy Brief 

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