US immigration: 1.5 million face loss of legal status under Trump rollbacks

End of TPS and humanitarian parole protections is triggering lawsuits and raising concerns over jobs, communities and the wider US economy

Since Inauguration Day, more than 1.5 million immigrants in the United States have either lost or are set to lose their temporary legal status, including work authorisation and protection from deportation, following a series of policy rollbacks under President Donald Trump.

 

Immigration policy experts described the scale and speed of the changes as unmatched in recent US history. Speaking to US-based non-profit States Newsroom, analysts said the Trump administration has reduced legal immigration by ending Temporary Protected Status for more than 1 million people and withdrawing humanitarian parole protections from around 500,000 others.

 

“I don’t think we’ve ever, as a country, seen such a huge number of people losing their immigration status all at once,” said Julia Gelatt, associate director of the US Immigration Policy Program at the Migration Policy Institute.

 

 

Economic impact of losing work authorisation

 

The loss of legal status has direct consequences for employment, with large numbers of people set to lose the right to work.

 

“Seeing well over 1 million people lose their work authorisation in a single year is a really huge event that has ripple effects for employers and communities and families and our economy as well,” Gelatt said.

 

The terminations have prompted dozens of lawsuits from immigrant rights groups and TPS recipients, who argue the decisions are unlawful.

 

“This is the continuation of the Trump administration attack against the immigrant community, and specifically about the TPS program, a program that, for many of us has been a good program, a life-saving program,” said Jose Palma, a TPS recipient from El Salvador and coordinator of the National TPS Alliance, which is involved in several legal challenges.

 

What is Temporary Protected Status?

 

Temporary Protected Status is granted to nationals of countries deemed unsafe due to war, violence, natural disasters or other unstable conditions.

 

Congress created the programme in 1990 as a short-term measure. Authorisations can last between six and 18 months and must be renewed. Recipients undergo background checks each time, but the status does not offer a route to citizenship.

 

Under President Joe Biden, both TPS and humanitarian parole expanded, drawing criticism from Republicans. During her Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said TPS designations would be reviewed for termination.

 

“This program has been abused and manipulated by the Biden administration, and that will no longer be allowed,” Noem said.

 

Before the Trump administration returned to office in late January, more than 1.3 million immigrants from 17 countries were covered by TPS. During Trump’s first term, the figure stood at around 400,000.

 

“Almost a million new people got onto TPS protections under President Biden, so we saw a really rapid expansion, and now we’re seeing a very rapid contraction,” Gelatt said. “In the first Trump administration, there weren’t so many people who had TPS.”

 

Countries affected by TPS terminations

 

Noem has ended TPS for immigrants from 11 countries. More than 1 million people are due to lose protection by February.

 

She extended protections for South Sudan by six months earlier this year, but in November decided to terminate them by January. Ethiopia’s TPS designation was withdrawn on December 12.

 

Other countries affected include:

Afghanistan

Burma

Cameroon

Haiti

Honduras

Nepal

Nicaragua

Syria

Venezuela

 

“We’ve never seen this many people lose their legal status in the history of the United States,” said David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, in a social media post. “This is totally unprecedented.”

 

Bier said the impact would be uneven across the country. Florida has more than 400,000 TPS recipients, while Texas has close to 150,000. Industries such as construction and healthcare, which rely heavily on TPS workers, are likely to feel the strain.

 

Haiti and Venezuela account for most losses

 

Immigrants from Haiti and Venezuela make up the majority of those set to lose TPS, with nearly 935,000 people affected.

 

Venezuelans account for about 605,000 of that total. They were first granted protection during Trump’s first term. On his final day in office in January 2021, the administration issued 18-month deportation protections under Deferred Enforcement Departure, citing instability under President Nicolás Maduro.

 

“Through force and fraud, the Maduro regime is responsible for the worst humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere in recent memory,” said a January 19, 2021 memo. “A catastrophic economic crisis and shortages of basic goods and medicine have forced about five million Venezuelans to flee the country, often under dangerous conditions.”

 

The Biden administration later granted TPS to Venezuelans arriving in 2021 and again in 2023, creating two separate TPS groups.

 

“The bottom line is that removing the 935,000 Venezuelans and Haitians would cause the entire economy to contract by more than $14 billion,” said Michael Clemens, professor of economics at George Mason University.

 

Clemens said not all recipients are in the workforce. Some are children or elderly dependants. He estimates the working population among Haitian and Venezuelan TPS holders at around 400,000.

 

Humanitarian parole also rolled back

 

Alongside TPS, humanitarian parole has also been curtailed. Under Biden, nearly 750,000 immigrants received parole-based legal status, largely in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine and migration from Central America.

 

The Department of Homeland Security has moved to end parole for 532,000 people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, making them vulnerable to deportation proceedings.

 

“The onslaught of attacks that we’ve been seeing on temporary forms of immigration status, specifically with a humanitarian focus, is truly saddening and concerning,” said Alice Barrett, a supervising immigration attorney at CASA.

 

Some groups remain exempt. DHS has retained parole for 140,000 Ukrainians who arrived after Russia’s invasion in 2022, and for 76,000 Afghans evacuated after the US withdrawal.

 

However, scrutiny has increased since a National Guard shooting last month in Washington, D.C., allegedly involving an Afghan national granted asylum. Immigration paperwork for Afghans has since been halted.

 

Courts play a central role

 

The Trump administration attempted to end TPS during its first term, but courts blocked terminations for Haiti, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Sudan in 2018.

 

This time, legal dynamics have shifted, Palma said.

 

“The only thing different right now is that the Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to continue with termination of TPS, even though lower courts are saying, ‘No, we should stop the cancellation of TPS for now,’” he said.

 

In emergency appeals, the Supreme Court has allowed the administration to proceed with ending TPS for Venezuelans and withdrawing humanitarian parole.

 

Barrett said the pace of terminations has accelerated.

 

“What we are seeing in the second Trump administration is a supercharged version of what we saw in the first Trump administration,” she said.

 

She said TPS holders trying to move into longer-term status face additional barriers.

 

“For example, we are seeing them questioned or denied relief at asylum interviews because they did not apply for asylum within one year of entering the United States, even though the Code of Federal Regulations clearly creates an exception,” Barrett said.

 

“These members of our community who have been in lawful status therefore now risk being placed in removal proceedings and even Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, where conditions are increasingly inhumane and dangerous,” she said.

 

Legal challenges from TPS recipients remain ongoing, with court cases continuing across several states.