Over 340,000 Haitians and Syrians Lose Legal Status as TPS Protections Expire

A Legal Shield, Now Gone

The Trump administration ended Temporary Protected Status for Syrians on July 17 and for Haitians on July 27. The back-to-back expirations mark the culmination of a years-long legal battle — and the beginning of an uncertain new chapter for hundreds of thousands of people who have built their lives in the United States. Now, 340,000 Haitians and over 6,000 Syrians are subject to deportation.

TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife. It is a legal status and protection from deportation, granted to countries that the Secretary of Homeland Security determines are too dangerous for people to go home to. For many TPS holders, it has been the only thread connecting them to legal life in America — the right to work, to rent an apartment, to stay.

The Supreme Court Opens the Door

The Supreme Court ruled on June 25, 2026, in *Mullin v. Doe*, that the Secretary of Homeland Security's decisions to terminate TPS for Syria and Haiti are not judicially reviewable, effectively permitting the Trump administration to end TPS for both countries. The ruling held that the TPS statute generally bars judicial review of non-constitutional challenges to the Secretary's decision to designate or revoke TPS status. That was the green light the administration had been waiting for.

The Supreme Court's June 25 decision also negatively impacts TPS for other countries, as the Court said that courts have very limited ability to review the government's TPS decisions — making many other lawsuits challenging TPS terminations for other countries much harder for immigrants to win. 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.

Real People, Real Consequences

Haitians were first granted TPS in 2010 after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed hundreds of thousands, with extensions granted as gang violence continued to displace more than a million people after the assassination of the country's president in 2021. Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere, is experiencing severe economic, political, and social insecurity, with gangs controlling parts of the country and terrorizing and killing innocent civilians. The U.S. State Department currently maintains a Level 4: Do Not Travel advisory for Haiti.

Some TPS holders have other pending immigration applications — including asylum claims, family-based green card petitions, or U visas — that could allow them to remain authorized to work, while others have few or no additional legal options. Immigration advocates say the changes and moving deadlines have made life uncertain for TPS holders, their families, and their employers. The human toll is hard to overstate: families weighing whether to uproot U.S.-born children, employers scrambling to fill gaps, and communities bracing for the loss of neighbors who have been there for years — sometimes decades.

An Economic Ripple Effect

The loss of these protections could have a profound effect on the health care industry, and specifically in elder and home care, which employs a large number of Haitian workers — an industry already facing an ongoing labor shortage, meaning it may be difficult to replace the jobs lost. TPS individuals also participate in construction, agriculture, hospitality, and retail industries in large numbers, and have a higher rate of workforce participation than U.S.-born individuals.

The effects would likely be concentrated in South Florida, particularly Miami-Dade and Broward counties, where Haitian communities make up a significant share of the workforce — and beyond direct job losses, reduced consumer spending in these communities could affect local businesses, housing demand, and tax revenues, amplifying the broader regional economic impact. With El Salvador's TPS designation set to expire in September 2026, the Trump administration could terminate that designation, ending protections for more than 170,000 people who have lived in the U.S. for a quarter of a century. The question of who belongs — and who gets to stay — is far from settled.