Overview
- The Supreme Court’s June 2026 decision in Mullin v. Doe sharply limited lower courts’ ability to block or review Homeland Security choices on Temporary Protected Status, clearing a legal path for DHS to implement cancellations.
- DHS has already moved to end protections for Haitian and Syrian recipients and is poised to let El Salvador’s TPS expire on Sept. 9, 2026, which would affect just over 170,000 people living and working in the United States.
- Legal teams say DHS failed to publish a required 60-day Federal Register notice for El Salvador and argue that failure should trigger an automatic six-month extension, while USCIS maintains the designation expires as scheduled.
- When TPS ends, holders lose work authorization and protection from removal, exposing families to detention or deportation and threatening jobs and local services; Salvadoran TPS-holders are estimated to pay about $1.5 billion a year in federal, state and local taxes.
- Advocates, local leaders and some members of Congress are racing to use emergency legal claims and proposed legislation to halt or soften the impact, but options are limited because the Supreme Court ruling shifted authority to the executive branch and Congress.