Supreme Court guts TPS

Decision upends the lives of millions of immigrant workers who have for years held legal documentation to stay in the U.S.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (June 26, 2026) — The Supreme Court on Thursday issued a decision allowing the Trump administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) without court review, putting 1.3 million people at risk of deportation. Some TPS recipients — like Haitians who received this protected status following the catastrophic 2010 earthquake — have lived and worked legally in the U.S. for more than a decade.

The 6-to-3 decision saw conservative justices united in upholding a Trump administration decision to decimate a program that has provided legal protections for individuals unable to safely return to their home country for more than 35 years. 17 countries are covered by TPS designation; the Trump administration has moved to strip that status from 13 of those countries already.

While the case decided yesterday by the Supreme Court dealt explicitly with the status of Haitian and Syrian TPS recipients, the decision holds that the president and his administration can unilaterally revoke TPS without court oversight, making the decision broad enough to impact recipients from any country. TPS designations for El Salvador, Lebanon, Sudan, and Ukraine are up for review in the coming months.

Photo: Getty; Design: The STAND

“Today’s decision is a devastating blow to working families and the stability of our economy. We stand proudly with the valued members of our unions and communities with TPS as we continue the long-term fight for justice,” said AFL-CIO president Liz Shuler in a statement issued Thursday. “By allowing the Trump administration to disregard the law, the court has put the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of workers at risk. TPS holders from Haiti, Syria and other countries came here fleeing danger, instability and crisis. They have built lives here, joined unions, and become integral to our workplaces and economy.”

Suddenly without legal documentation to work–and likely still facing serious danger if they return to their country of origin–many immigrant workers with TPS will be pushed into finding work in the underground economy.

“Let’s be clear about who pays the price for this decision: working people. It’s not just wrong—it is a recipe for economic disaster that will create chaos in workplaces, disrupt key industries, and make it easier for bad bosses to exploit fear and drive down workplace standards and conditions for everyone,” Shuler continued. “The Trump administration’s anti-immigrant agenda seeks to pit working people against each other—but the labor movement rejects that politics of fear. Congress must act immediately to protect TPS holders and stabilize our workforce by creating a broad and swift pathway to citizenship for those whose labor helps our country to prosper.”

On Thursday, the call for immediate congressional action to create a broad pathway to citizenship for immigrant workers was echoed by some of the largest unions in the U.S., like the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).