US employers are compelled to terminate thousands of immigrant workers as temporary protection programs come to an end, creating confusion among companies, according to reports.
On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security informed employers that they must lay off hundreds of thousands of foreign workers benefiting from a humanitarian program that the Trump administration sought to dismantle.
Work permits for Haitians under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) are set to expire on July 24. Meanwhile, permits for citizens from Ethiopia, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen will expire on July 17, according to notifications from US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
The new directives follow a Supreme Court ruling last month that affirmed the Trump administration’s authority to end protections for TPS beneficiaries from Haiti and Syria. Once these permits expire, affected individuals face the risk of deportation.
Currently, over 330,000 Haitians and 6,100 Syrians reside in the US under this program. The US government grants this status when crises in the home countries, such as natural disasters or civil conflicts, make returning unsafe. The other five countries collectively have about 20,000 beneficiaries, according to the National Immigration Forum.
Originally, USCIS set the expiration date for July 1, extended it to July 10 for all countries, and then announced new deadline extensions on Friday.
Due to these repeated changes, some employers had already laid off their employees before learning about the latest extension, while others kept their staff, believing the Supreme Court’s ruling would take effect after about 30 days.
Confusion Among Employers
Jacob Monty, legal advisor for the American Business Immigration Coalition, stated that many employers were bewildered by the changes and feared they might face penalties for hiring individuals without work authorization.
“The rule of law still exists, and the TPS program has not been abolished yet,” Monty remarked in an interview. “USCIS could have clarified this issue. Many employers were left uncertain, which led them to unjustly terminate employees ahead of time,” he added.
Thousands of TPS beneficiaries from Haiti work in the healthcare sector and as caregivers for the elderly in the US. The program also allowed many beneficiaries to work in manufacturing, construction, and transportation sectors.
In addition to immigrants from Haiti and Syria, the administration had already announced plans to stop temporary protection for workers from the other five countries. Initially, federal court cases blocked these measures. However, the Supreme Court’s ruling set a precedent that is expected to allow lower courts to enforce the decision.
Government notifications indicate that federal courts are expected to align with the Supreme Court’s ruling. The Department of Homeland Security has not commented on the situation.
Attorneys representing Haitians and Syrians argued that the termination of TPS was politically motivated and based on racial hostility. Nonetheless, the Supreme Court majority, in a 6 to 3 decision, ruled that the Secretary of Homeland Security has the authority to end the program.
Although the government recently extended protective status for citizens from Lebanon, the Supreme Court decision will likely lead to the cessation of the program for other countries as well.
Reports suggest that the protective status for El Salvador, affecting about 200,000 individuals, is expected to expire at the beginning of September. During Donald Trump’s first term, courts blocked this measure.
The program has been in effect since 1990. However, the Trump administration described it as a de facto permanent immigration system, as many individuals have benefited from this status for years, with previous administrations repeatedly extending protections.
Immigrant advocates have denounced the current measures, highlighting that the situation in several countries remains extremely unstable.
