By: Victoria Walker, Policy Analyst
On April 29, 2026, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) will go before the U.S. Supreme Court. On paper, the case may appear to be another set of briefs, another date on the calendar, but for hundreds of thousands of people living in the United States under TPS, this moment could mean everything. It is about whether their children can finish the school year without fear, whether they can keep going to work and feed their families, whether the life they’ve built—legally and openly, with authorization from the U.S. Government—will be upended.
Start here, with a simple truth: people with TPS are allowed to be here. They applied, paid fees, were vetted, and were granted protection by the U.S. Government. They pay Federal and state taxes, hold jobs, raise families, and contribute to their communities. They are here because the law recognizes that returning them to their home countries would be unsafe. Some have been here for decades, fully part of their communities, and deeply woven into the fabric of this country.
At its core, this case is about whether the United States will uphold TPS as a lawful humanitarian protection for people who cannot safely return home. Regardless of what the court decides, the United States must preserve TPS as a pathway to protection for those who need it most.
What is TPS and Why Does it Exist?
It’s been more than three decades since Congress established the TPS program as part of the Immigration Act of 1990. TPS is a lifesaving program that provides eligible individuals already present in the United States with protection from deportation and authorization to work. It is granted to individuals whose home countries are experiencing armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary temporary conditions that make a safe return impossible.
Countries that have been designated for TPS over time include places like Ethiopia, South Sudan, Myanmar, Ukraine, and Sudan. Each country’s designation is different, with its own timeline and period of coverage. Nationals of a designated country (or those without nationality who last resided there) do not automatically receive TPS. They must apply during a specific registration period, re-register when required to maintain their status, and pay significant application and renewal fees.
While TPS does not provide a direct path to permanent residency or citizenship, it offers something immediate and essential: stability. For many families, it means not living in fear of deportation and returning to dangerous conditions. It means having the chance to work, plan, and contribute to communities across the United States. Although TPS is a temporary immigration status, in practice, many of the global crises we are experiencing today last far longer than anyone hopes or could ever plan for. As a result, people build lives while waiting for conditions to improve back home. They raise children, share skills and expertise, boost the economy, and become the neighbors and friends that we depend on.
Congress established TPS as a temporary protection, but for many, the conditions that made return unsafe have not improved with time. Ending these protections now would upend lives built over years of lawful presence. It is neither practical nor humane, and it is important to recognize that reality and create a pathway to permanent status for those who have long depended on TPS.
TPS Under Threat
There is no sound basis for eliminating these protections and requiring people to return to countries still facing war, famine, violence, and profound instability. In the absence of a pathway to permanent status and given the ongoing instability in TPS-designated countries, administrations of both parties have repeatedly extended and redesignated these protections for years.
Under the current Trump Administration, however, the semblance of stability that TPS provided the nearly 1.3 million people who held this status as of early 2025 has been upended. TPS is rapidly changing as the Administration moves to terminate the 17 designations, actions that could amount to the largest de-documentation event in the history of the United States. Already, the Administration has terminated or announced an intent to terminate TPS for more than 1 million individuals. For now, the courts have blocked some of these terminations from taking effect. However, the upcoming Supreme Court case concerning TPS designations for Haiti and Syria will not only impact Syrians and Haitians, but potentially all remaining TPS holders in the United States.
What Will Be Argued at SCOTUS?
This week, arguments will be heard at the Supreme Court in two consolidated TPS cases: Dahlia Doe v. Noem (Syria) and Miot v. Trump (Haiti). When the Administration sought to end TPS for Syria and Haiti, stripping about 350,000 Haitians and over 6,000 Syrians of their status, organizations filed lawsuits on behalf of Haitian and Syrian TPS beneficiaries to block the terminations. Now, the Administration is asking the Supreme Court to make TPS decisions unreviewable by the court system.
TPS terminations for Haiti and Syria, as well as other countries, have been challenged by the courts because they disregard ongoing dangerous conditions in these countries. In Haiti, over 1.4 million people are displaced by ongoing violence and instability across the country, a 40 percent increase since the end of 2024. More than half of the displaced population in Haiti are women and children. Around 6.4 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance in Haiti, and 5.7 million people are experiencing severe food insecurity. This makes Haiti one of the world’s six most severe hunger crises.
In Syria, 15.6 million people remain in need of humanitarian assistance as ongoing displacement, protection risks, and climate shocks continue to destabilize communities across the country. Following years of conflict, Syria remains one of the largest displacement crises in the world, with 6.5 million people displaced internally and 4.3 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. Despite the fall of the Assad regime in 2024, conditions are still dangerous for many Syrians who, if returned, could face severe harm. After years of war, Syria continues to face significant humanitarian and development needs, at a time when U.S. and international funding for these efforts have been cut back.
Both Syria and Haiti maintain a Level 4 “Do not travel” advisory from the U.S. Department of State, yet through this case the Administration is actively working to strip protections from Syrians and Haitians, which could recklessly result in forced returns to life-threatening conditions.
What’s at Stake?
Ending TPS holders’ legal status would uproot the lives of millions of people, each one with a story, a family, a community. It would separate mixed-status families, destabilize communities, and cause widespread economic harm across the United States. Families would be left without their primary caregivers, hospitals without their doctors and nurses, schools without their teachers, and people without their neighbors. Making TPS decisions unreviewable by the courts would undermine the laws written by Congress and inflict lasting harm on the separation of powers and the rule of law.
TPS is a lawful, congressionally authorized program with clear eligibility and renewal requirements. It is a lifesaving program, and ending protection does not change conditions in home countries. As conflicts and disasters persist, the gap between temporary protection and lived reality continues to widen, meaning Congress must also act. Lawmakers have the power to create pathways to permanence to ensure that humanitarian protections are not subject to constant uncertainty.
What is at stake tomorrow is not just a legal question, but a moral one. TPS reflects a fundamental principle that must guide U.S. policy: when it is dangerous for people to return home, we offer protection. The question now is whether we will continue to honor that principle and recognize that behind every policy decision is human life. For TPS holders from Haiti, Syria, and beyond, the stakes are not theoretical. They are immediate, tangible, and deeply human.
At its core, this moment will signal what kind of country the United States chooses to be: one that turns away from those who have built their lives here under lawful protection, or one that upholds its commitments and responds to global crises with consistency and humanity. The decision will not only shape the future of TPS holders, but also define the nation’s credibility, its adherence to the rule of law, and its willingness to act in accordance with its stated values.
USCRI will remain steadfast in its advocacy to uphold the rights, safety, and dignity of TPS holders and all displaced people.
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