U.S. EXTENDS WORK PERMITS FOR TPS HOLDERS HOURS BEFORE EXPIRATION

The Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services temporarily extended work permits for hundreds of thousands of immigrants with Temporary Protected Status hours before the documents were due to expire Friday, according to Reuters, the Associated Press and The Washington Post. The extension applies to employment authorization documents, or EADs, for TPS holders from Haiti and six other countries. USCIS said Haitian TPS holders' work permits will remain valid until July 24, 2026. Work permits for TPS holders from Syria, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Myanmar were extended for one additional week.

The distinction is important: the government extended the validity of employment authorization documents for Form I-9 and E-Verify purposes. It did not resolve the underlying TPS designations. The TPS status of affected groups remains in legal limbo while lower federal courts take procedural steps following the U.S. Supreme Court's June 25 ruling in Mullin v. Doe. USCIS described the extension as temporary, interim relief while district courts align active injunctions with the Supreme Court's decision. That means employers and workers received a short-term documentation fix, not a final answer on deportation protection, legal status or future work authorization.

Temporary Protected Status allows people already in the United States to live and work legally when their home countries are affected by armed conflict, natural disaster or other extraordinary conditions. Reuters reported that the Friday action covered immigrants from Haiti, Ethiopia, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Myanmar. The largest affected group is Haitian TPS holders. AP and The Washington Post reported that about 350,000 Haitian TPS holders are affected, with Florida holding the largest share, roughly 113,000.

The immediate effect of the extension is administrative but significant. Employers use Form I-9 to verify that workers are authorized to work in the United States, and many employers also use E-Verify to check employment eligibility electronically. If EADs had expired without updated guidance, workers could have been removed from schedules, suspended, terminated or pushed into legal uncertainty even while court orders remained unresolved. Labor groups had warned that a sudden loss of work authorization could disrupt workplaces and key industries, according to Reuters. The one- and two-week extensions reduce that immediate disruption, but only temporarily.

For Haitian TPS holders, the new work-permit validity date is July 24. For TPS holders from Syria, Ethiopia, Somalia, Yemen, South Sudan and Myanmar, the extension is shorter, lasting one week. The different timelines reflect the procedural posture of the litigation and the active injunctions, according to USCIS and reporting from AP and The Washington Post. They do not indicate that the underlying country conditions have been newly resolved. Haiti remains affected by severe gang violence and institutional instability, while several of the other countries covered by the notice continue to face conflict, displacement or humanitarian emergencies.

The Supreme Court's June 25 decision in Mullin v. Doe is central to the uncertainty. Reuters reported that the court ruled last month that the administration could end TPS for Haitians and Syrians. USCIS said the temporary EAD extension is meant to provide interim relief while lower courts take procedural steps to align injunctions with that ruling. Advocacy groups and immigrant communities have warned that the decision could strip work authorization and deportation protection from large numbers of people who have lived and worked in the United States for years. The administration has argued that its immigration actions are aimed at domestic security and protecting U.S. jobs, according to Reuters.

The Florida impact is especially large because of the state's Haitian population. AP and The Washington Post reported that Florida has the highest number of affected Haitian TPS holders, about 113,000. Many live in South Florida communities with deep Haitian diaspora networks and local economies tied to immigrant labour. A sudden work-permit lapse could affect families, employers and public services even before any deportation action occurs. That is why the EAD extension matters even though it does not settle the broader case. It keeps workers legally employable for a brief period while courts and federal agencies sort out the next procedural step.

The next developments to watch are the expected district court orders at the end of July, any new USCIS guidance for employers, and whether DHS extends or lets lapse the work-permit validity for each country group. For now, the verified public record is narrow but consequential: DHS and USCIS extended the validity of work permits for TPS holders from seven countries hours before expiration, while the underlying TPS designations remain unresolved in court.

Fact-check date: 12 July 2026
Article type: News
Sources: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notice on temporary EAD validity extension; Reuters reporting on the country list, timing and the Supreme Court's Mullin v. Doe ruling; Associated Press and The Washington Post reporting on the extension, affected populations and Florida impact.