The Trump administration has launched an unprecedented rollback of the TPS program between late 2025 and early 2026, stripping deportation protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants who had lived legally in the United States for years under humanitarian designations. These actions mark one of the most far-reaching efforts to curtail lawful immigration programs in modern U.S. history.
Temporary Protected Status, created by Congress in 1990, allows nationals from countries suffering from natural disasters, armed conflicts, or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” to remain in the U.S. temporarily. TPS holders receive authorization to live and work in the country legally, often rebuilding their lives over years or decades while their home nations recover.
Historically, the program has covered people from countries such as Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Syria—places devastated by civil war, earthquakes, or hurricanes.
Former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem initiated the first wave of TPS terminations in mid-2025. In the summer, she moved to end TPS designations for Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua. By February 2026, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the administration, lifting a federal injunction that had blocked earlier termination attempts.
On November 28, 2025, Secretary Noem formally announced that TPS for Haiti would end on February 3, 2026, affecting roughly 353,000 Haitian nationals. Civil rights and immigrant advocacy groups filed suits, contending the termination was politically motivated and violated administrative law. In early February 2026, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes temporarily halted the decision, ruling it was “substantially likely” that DHS acted improperly in revoking Haiti’s protection. On March 16, 2026, the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments on whether to allow the administration to proceed with ending the program while litigation continues. TPS holders from Haiti remain protected from deportation while the Supreme Court reviews the case.
