Congress Must Act Now to Protect TPS Holders

Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued mandates to lower courts greenlighting the Trump Administration’s stripping of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from over 6,100 Syrians and 350,000 Haitians, which will essentially render them undocumented. This means hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom have lived in the United States for over a decade, will lose their work authorization and potentially be subjected to arrest, detention, and deportation to danger. They have families, job obligations, and deep ties in our communities and still face severe harm and risk if they return to Syria or Haiti. And it’s not just these two populations.

The vast majority of the over 1.3 million people who held TPS status when the second Trump administration took office have already or are at imminent risk of losing their status. The Trump administration is pursuing efforts to de-document immigrants on an unprecedented scale, and in a way that runs contrary to what Congress intended when it created humanitarian immigration programs like TPS. It is time for Congress to act again to ensure TPS holders are protected along with our laws and democracy. 

TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to help nationals of countries who experienced environmental disasters, ongoing armed conflict, and other extraordinary and temporary conditions that make it difficult for people to return to their home countries. The executive can designate countries for TPS for up to 18 months and shall re-designate them so long as country conditions remain unsafe. The TPS provision clearly states that when deciding whether to re-designate a country for TPS, the administration must consult with appropriate agencies to review country conditions in order to determine whether the designation should remain.

The International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) Represents Syrian TPS Holders in Court

On September 19, 2025, then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem published a notice in the Federal Register with her intent to end TPS for Syria in just 60 days- the bare minimum required by statute. She stated that with the fall of Assad’s regime, the designation was no longer needed. This was done despite the fact that the State Department maintains a Level 4 travel advisory for Syria “due to the risk of terrorism, unrest, kidnaping, hostage taking, crime, and armed conflict.” Those who ignore the “do not travel” warning are advised to draft a will and leave behind DNA samples in case they are required to identify one’s body.

Based on our own legal representation of Syrian clients in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and desk research, IRAP staff also found and published a report documenting the ways in which it remains unsafe for clients to return to Syria due to “continued armed conflict and insecurity and dire humanitarian conditions,” especially for women and girls, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and religious and ethnic minorities.

IRAP co-represented Syrian nationals with TPS in Dahlia v. Doe, arguing that the determination by DHS Secretary Noem to end TPS for Syria did not follow statutory requirements, violates the Administrative Procedure Act, and violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The case was consolidated with Miot et. al. v. Trump, a case brought by Haitian TPS holders to argue against the end of Haiti’s TPS designation.The Supreme Court ultimately ruled in Mullin v. Doe that it didn’t matter whether Secretary Noem had followed the law when ending TPS for Syrians and Haitians because the TPS provision bars judicial review of the determinations made by DHS unless there is a Constitutional claim.

This is a deeply concerning abdication of the separation of powers and the role of the judiciary in protecting our rights and democracy from executive overreach. Given the decision in Mullin v. Doe, Congress must act to pass legislation to reassert its role in protecting the humanitarian programs it created and the people who rely on them.

What Congress Can Do Today

As the chaos caused by TPS terminations grows by the day, Congress must immediately grant safety and relief to the 1.3 million TPS holders who are abruptly losing their immigration status and work authorization. The Dream and Promise Act of 2026 (H.R. 1589) led by Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-TX) and Rep. Salazar (R-FL) would provide that relief for TPS holders and create a pathway to citizenship. It would also protect eligible applicants from removal while applications are pending. The bill also provides a path to permanency for Dreamers, immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, many of whom were previously provided relief under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. There are currently efforts in the House to force a vote on the bill through a discharge petition.

In addition, Congress should clarify that judicial review is warranted for determinations made by the administration in removing designations of countries for TPS. Rep. Wasserman Schultz has introduced the TPS Review Act which would clarify the TPS statute. The bill would amend the TPS statute to allow for judicial review. This would ensure that courts can review future decisions made by any presidential administration on TPS terminations.

 In addition, the bill establishes a cause of action for TPS recipients to sue in court, and also allows Congress to reverse a TPS termination decision through a simple majority vote. Finally, the bill would require that an administrative record be created by the DHS Secretary before a TPS determination is made. This would include written findings of fact and conclusions of law to support the determination and require consideration of information provided by the Department of State and other federal agencies.  

TPS holders cannot wait. The Trump administration is doubling down on its detention and deportation efforts and only action from Congress can help. We are about to experience the cascading social and economic effects of people losing their work authorization and living in fear of being torn away from their families and sent back to unsafe conditions in their home countries. The longer TPS holders are without status, the more de-stabilizing it will be for our communities. According to an analysis by FWD.us, TPS holders contribute $29 billion to the U.S. economy and pay $7.8 billion in taxes. We urge members of Congress to pass the Dream and Promise Act and the TPS Review Act as soon as possible and thank the leaders of these bills for their steadfast commitment to protect TPS holders. we must not allow this inhumane practice – or the treatment of migrants as mere diplomatic leverage – to become normalized.

Rricha deCant is IRAP’s Senior Director of U.S. Policy.