The Department of Homeland Security has instructed U.S. employers to terminate hundreds of thousands of workers whose employment authorization under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will expire in the coming weeks, following a Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for the Trump administration to end protections for several nationalities.
Notices issued Friday by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and reported by The New York Times, said work permits for Haitians with TPS will expire on July 24, while those for recipients from Ethiopia, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen will expire on July 17.
More than 330,000 Haitians and about 6,100 Syrians are affected immediately, along with roughly 20,000 TPS holders from the other five countries.
The guidance follows the Supreme Court's June decision allowing the administration to terminate TPS for Haiti and Syria while legal challenges continue. The ruling also established a precedent expected to make it easier for the administration to end protections for other nationalities, potentially affecting as many as 1.3 million TPS holders nationwide, according to numbers provided by The Guardian last week.
The notices have also created uncertainty for employers after USCIS repeatedly extended work authorization deadlines in recent weeks. Some businesses dismissed TPS workers before learning of the latest extensions, while others kept employees on payroll expecting the Supreme Court ruling would not take effect immediately.
Jacob Monty, legal counsel for the American Business Immigration Coalition, said the agency "could have clarified the issue," adding that "many employers were uncertain, leading them to unnecessarily terminate the workers early."
TPS, created by Congress in 1990, allows nationals of countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions to live and work legally in the United States temporarily. The Trump administration has argued that repeated renewals turned the program into a de facto permanent immigration pathway and has sought to end protections for multiple countries.
The Supreme Court's ruling means courts generally cannot second-guess the Homeland Security secretary's decisions to designate or terminate TPS, except in limited constitutional claims. Justice Elena Kagan, dissenting, warned in late June that the decision leaves courts "powerless to intervene" even if the secretary fails to meaningfully evaluate conditions in affected countries.
Immigrant advocates argue many TPS recipients face returning to countries the U.S. government itself still considers unsafe. Current State Department travel advisories urge Americans not to travel to Haiti because "violent crime is rampant" and to Syria because of "terrorism, unrest, kidnapping, hostage taking, crime, and armed conflict."
The decision is expected to affect industries that rely heavily on TPS workers, particularly healthcare, construction, manufacturing and transportation.
