Following a Supreme Court ruling permitting the termination of their legal protections, the Trump administration on Wednesday updated the work authorisations of hundreds of thousands of immigrants enrolled under the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programme.
Although the Supreme Court last week upheld the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haitians and Syrians, lower courts have not yet amended their rulings, allowing existing work authorisations to remain valid until the newly announced expiration date of July 10.
According to updated guidance from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the revised work authorisation expiration date applies to nationals of Haiti, Syria, Myanmar (Burma), Yemen, Ethiopia, South Sudan and Somalia.
The department noted that even if the expiration date is pushed back while lower court proceedings continue, the extension would be considered a temporary measure rather than a permanent solution.
The Trump administration has pushed to withdraw Temporary Protected Status from all the listed countries, maintaining that the circumstances that originally justified the protection have changed enough for affected nationals to safely return to their home countries.
Following last Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling, lawmakers and business leaders cautioned that stripping hundreds of thousands of immigrants of their legal status could have serious economic consequences, particularly because many of them are employed in sectors such as healthcare and hospitality.
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is available only to people who were already residing in the United States when their country was designated for the programme. While it offers temporary protection from deportation and permits beneficiaries to work legally, it does not provide a direct pathway to permanent residency or U.S. citizenship.
To qualify, applicants are generally required to have lived continuously in the United States for a specified period, submit their application within the designated registration window, and successfully complete criminal background and security checks similar to those required of other immigrant applicants.
Over the past year, the Trump administration has moved to revoke Temporary Protected Status for several countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Somalia, and Myanmar. In total, it has sought to end TPS protections for nationals of at least 13 countries, while extending the programme for only one country—Lebanon.
In a 6-3 ruling in Mullin v. Doe, the Supreme Court overturned lower court decisions that had halted the policy, delivering a significant legal victory for the administration’s immigration agenda.
The court’s six conservative justices agreed with the administration’s position that federal courts should not interfere with key executive decisions regarding Temporary Protected Status. The ruling cleared the way for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to begin withdrawing protections previously granted to about 350,000 Haitians and roughly 6,000 Syrians, who had been living and working legally in the United States under the programme.
Although the ruling specifically addressed Haiti and Syria, Temporary Protected Status currently covers about 1.3 million people from 17 countries. Many beneficiaries have lived in the United States for years under renewable protections, and legal observers widely expected the decision to have broader implications for TPS holders from other designated countries.
“Everyone understands that ‘temporary’ is in the title. TPS was never intended to be permanent,” Adam Klein, a former DHS senior official who once led the TPS program and co-founder at Globali.ai, told Newsweek on June 25.
“But I think many of us who worked on the program—and many of those who depended on it—believed that a designation would create the space and incentive for conditions in the home country to improve, allowing people to return safely when circumstances genuinely warranted it, not simply because policymakers decided that enough time had passed,” he said.“There was also an expectation among many career officials that Congress would eventually act to regularize the status of at least some long-term TPS beneficiaries who had built lives, families, and deep ties in the United States. Congress has failed to do so.”
