TPS holders at risk of losing work permits sue Trump administration
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Josè Palma, a TPS holder from El Salvador, speaks at a rally in New York in 2021. Photo: Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post via Getty Images
While the future of Temporary Protected Status remains in limbo, TPS recipients across Massachusetts could lose their jobs as soon as July 22.
Why it matters: Delays in processing renewal applications are colliding with new restrictions under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
- The result: Tens of thousands of TPS holders could be without work authorization while they wait for work permits they applied to renew earlier this year.
Catch up quick: The law and subsequent regulations impose not only new fees for asylum and TPS petitions, but also prevent TPS holders with pending renewal applications from working before renewal is granted.
- For TPS holders from El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine, work permits expire on July 22, even though their status is expected to expire in September (El Salvador) or October (Sudan and Ukraine).
- Haitian TPS holders' work permits were set to expire on July 10, but the expiration was delayed by a legal challenge that was recently reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
- Now it's up to the lower courts to decide on the matter, including when they lose their protected status.
The latest: A coalition of labor and immigrant rights groups from Massachusetts sued the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Department of Homeland Security last week over the new rules and fees.
What they're saying: "TPS holders, like all working people, depend on our jobs to put food on the table for ourselves and our families," said José Palma, coordinator of the National TPS Alliance and a former Massachusetts resident.
- "The Trump administration is trying to make our lives impossible by preventing us from working," said Palma, a TPS holder from El Salvador.
The other side: A USCIS spokesperson called the legal complaint "another frivolous lawsuit being brought on by the open border left" to undermine President Trump's authority over immigration policies.
- "U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is faithfully implementing the law as enacted by Congress," the spokesperson said in a statement to Axios.
By the numbers: Massachusetts is home to an estimated 45,000 TPS holders, including nearly 9,000 from El Salvador, Sudan and Ukraine combined, plus more than 22,000 from Haiti, per estimates from a UMass Boston report in April.
- In Massachusetts, TPS holders work as home health aides, nurses, construction workers and teachers, as well as in other high-demand jobs, per the UMass report.
Threat level: Jessica Bansal, an attorney specializing in TPS for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, one of the plaintiffs, said the expiration dates imposed this spring caught recipients off guard.
- No direct path to legal residency exists for TPS holders.
- Absent a rare family-based petition or work-sponsored visa, recipients with pending renewals likely don't have any alternative path to live and work legally in the U.S.
What's next: The 11th-hour legal challenge goes before a federal judge in Boston for review.