TPS Holders Face Deportation After Supreme Court Ruling

You have lived in the US for 25 years. You pay taxes, own a home, and hold a job you worked decades to earn. Then the Supreme Court issues a ruling — and overnight, your ability to fight deportation nearly disappears. That is the reality facing Dalia, a 45-year-old Salvadoran project manager in Long Island City, and roughly one million other Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders across the country.

What the Supreme Court ruling actually changed

TPS is a humanitarian program created by Congress in 1990. It protects immigrants from deportation when their home country is too dangerous to return to — because of war, earthquakes, or other disasters. For years, TPS holders used federal courts to block the Trump administration from canceling their protections, arguing the government had not followed proper legal procedures. The Supreme Court's ruling ended that strategy. Federal courts can no longer question the administration's decision to end TPS for a country, unless there is a clear constitutional violation. Jose Palma, a spokesperson for the National TPS Alliance, put it plainly: the Secretary of Homeland Security can now cancel TPS for any country at any time, and TPS holders have almost no legal path to challenge that decision.

Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin wrote on X in late June that TPS is "just that: TEMPORARY," and accused Democrats of turning it into a "defacto amnesty program." Since the start of the second Trump administration, the government has ended TPS for more than a dozen countries. Three countries — including El Salvador — were still waiting for a decision as of the time of reporting. TPS protections for Salvadorans were set to run through early September, but the government was required to give 60 days' notice of any extension or termination, meaning a decision was due imminently.

A Cornell University study released this month found that TPS holders are employed at a 94.6% rate and paid nearly $1.3 billion in federal taxes in 2021 alone. In New York City, TPS recipients generated an estimated $241 million in Gross City Product in 2017. Natalia Navas, co-author of the study, said the impact goes beyond economics: "Attacking one person means attacking the whole family." Over 23,000 Salvadoran TPS holders live in the New York City metro area. One in every eight Salvadoran residents in the city holds TPS, according to the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs. Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said ending the program would affect not only 170,000 Salvadoran TPS holders but also 277,000 US citizens — including 150,000 children — who live with them.

For Dalia, losing TPS would mean losing her work permit, her income, and her ability to pay the mortgage on the Long Island home she just bought. Her entire family — mother, siblings, community — is in the US. She has been waiting eight years in a family visa petition line that moves slowly, with no other path to permanent residency in sight. Gladys, a 72-year-old home healthcare worker who has lived and worked legally in the US since 1991, worries about losing her Social Security check and facing old age without support. "If they take it away, we lose everything," she told Documented.

What to do

• If you hold TPS, contact an immigration lawyer now to review whether you have any other path to legal status — such as a pending family petition (Form I-130), a work-based visa, or eligibility to apply for a green card (Form I-485, the application for a green card from inside the US).
• Document your ties to the US: tax returns, employment records, lease or mortgage, children's birth certificates. This evidence matters in any future immigration proceeding.
• Connect with a TPS advocacy organization such as the National TPS Alliance, which can alert you to any last-minute legal or legislative developments.
• If you have a family petition already approved or pending, ask your attorney how your priority date affects your options — and whether any visa category may become available to you sooner than expected.