Employers with foreign workers face a fresh round of uncertainty after the government terminated Temporary Protected Status for Haitian and Syrian nationals, cutting off work authorization for hundreds of thousands of people who had been living and working in the U.S. legally for years.
Background
The termination traces back to a June 25, 2026 Supreme Court ruling in Mullin v. Doe, which the Associated Press covered as part of its reporting on the fallout. The Court held that federal judges don’t have the authority to block a DHS decision to end a country’s TPS designation, clearing the way for the terminations to take effect. Syria’s TPS ended July 17, and Haiti’s followed on July 27. This was over a month since USCIS had been issuing short-term extensions to permits in the interim before finally letting them lapse.
Impact
That gap is part of what’s made this so disorienting for employers. According to the AP, USCIS had been renewing Haitian work permits on the same day they expired, sometimes for only a few days at a stretch, which kept both workers and the businesses that employ them in limbo for weeks. When those renewals stopped, employers who checked worker status through E-Verify started finding permits flagged as invalid and suspended employees on the spot, in some cases people who’d worked the same restaurant or hotel job for over a decade.
What This Means To You
The stakes go beyond a paycheck. Once someone’s TPS status ends, they lose the lawful presence that protected them from removal, which means the loss of a job now comes bundled with the risk of detention and deportation to a country the State Department itself warns Americans not to visit. Haiti’s TPS designation dates back to the 2010 earthquake, and conditions there haven’t exactly stabilized gang violence has displaced roughly 1.5 million people, and more than half the country’s population needs humanitarian assistance.
This is one piece of a broader immigration enforcement push, and it likely won’t be the last TPS designation to fall.
As always, ILBSG actively monitors ongoing U.S. immigration news. If you have questions about any U.S. immigration related issue, contact us. Working with an experienced attorney ensures you get the right advice based on the most recent laws. In an ever-evolving immigration policy landscape, it’s particularly critical you get the right advice.