As of March 2025, there were nearly 1.3 million people from 17 countries living and working in the United States with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) protections. However, over the past year, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem worked to scale back the TPS program. Noem announced her intent to terminate TPS status for 13 countries, including Haiti, Syria, Venezuela and Afghanistan. Noem and other DHS leaders argued that their reviews of each country’s current conditions—including assessments of political stability, security conditions, economic recovery and whether the circumstances that originally justified TPS persist—show that these conditions no longer meet the requirements for continued TPS protections. They stress that TPS was created to offer temporary humanitarian relief in response to extraordinary conditions such as armed conflict, natural disasters or severe instability, and that once the department has judged those conditions to have eased, the protections should end.

“The administration is returning TPS to its original temporary intent,” Noem said in May 2025 when announcing the end of Afghanistan’s protected status.

The Temporary Protected Status program was enacted in 1990 to allow the DHS to provide temporary protection to nationals of countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions that make returning unsafe. TPS can be granted to an individual who is a national of a designated country, has filed for status during a specified registration period and who has been continuously physically present in the U.S. since a designated date. While under TPS, recipients are protected from removal or detainment and are eligible for an Employment Authorization Document (EAD). However, TPS is temporary and does not lead to lawful permanent resident status or citizenship. The Secretary of Homeland Security sets the duration of TPS, typically ranging from six to 18 months. However, the DHS can choose to terminate it at any time or extend the status beyond its original timeline. Extensions can be issued multiple times, meaning TPS protections can last for many years, but the program remains entirely discretionary and temporary.

Noem’s effort to terminate TPS designations provoked multiple legal battles. TPS holders who stood to lose their protected status sued to block the terminations, stating that Noem had rushed the decision-making process to justify pre-determined outcomes. Some plaintiffs also claimed that her termination decisions were motivated, at least in part, by hostility toward certain racial and ethnic groups. In return, the Trump administration argued that immigration law prohibits courts from even reviewing a secretary’s decision to terminate TPS. In the ongoing legal battle for TPS, these terminations leave thousands of TPS recipients facing uncertainty, including the risks of losing their work authorization and facing potential deportation. The outcome of these cases will not only determine the future of thousands of TPS holders but also set a broader precedent for how immigration protections will be reviewed in U.S. courts.