The Supreme Court ruled June 25, 2026, dissolving court orders that had protected Haiti and Syria TPS. E-Verify issued official employer guidance on July 1, 2026 setting July 10, 2026 as the current operative EAD expiration date for both countries. This is a temporary extension while lower courts align with the Supreme Court's decision. Check E-Verify for Haiti and E-Verify for Syria for current instructions, as guidance may be updated further.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 25, 2026 that courts have very limited power to pause TPS terminations. Haiti and Syria TPS ended July 1. For HR leaders, the immediate question is how to respond to affected employees, and the longer-term question is how to build an immigration program that no longer depends on litigation buying time.
What the Court decided
On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court issued decisions in two companion cases: Mullin v. Doe (No. 25-1083), which involved Haitian TPS beneficiaries, and Trump v. Miot (No. 25-1084), which involved Syrian TPS beneficiaries. The Court ruled 6-3 on ideological lines in both.
The central holding: federal courts have very limited authority to pause or review the administration's decisions to terminate TPS designations. The Court accepted the government's argument that TPS termination decisions are subject to very limited judicial review.
The Court also rejected an equal protection challenge brought by Haitian TPS holders who argued that Haiti's designation was terminated on the basis of race. Both the procedural and constitutional challenges were dismissed.
Practically, the decisions dissolved the injunctions that had paused the Haiti and Syria terminations while litigation continued. Those terminations took effect July 1, 2026.
What the ruling means for Haiti and Syria employees
The Supreme Court's June 25 ruling dissolved the court orders protecting Haiti and Syria TPS. Approximately 350,000 Haitian TPS holders and 6,000 Syrian TPS holders are affected, according to reporting at the time of the ruling.
On July 1, 2026, E-Verify issued updated employer guidance for both countries. The current operative EAD expiration date for I-9 and E-Verify purposes is July 10, 2026 — a short extension described as "limited relief until the lower courts align with the U.S. Supreme Court's favorable decision in Mullin v. Doe." This date may be updated further as lower courts respond. HR teams should check the official E-Verify guidance pages directly for Haiti and Syria, and monitor for any subsequent updates before taking employment action.
E-Verify has published updated I-9 employer instructions for both countries, setting July 10, 2026 as the current EAD expiration date for Form I-9 and E-Verify purposes. These supersede the March 2026 guidance. See the official pages: E-Verify Haiti update (July 1, 2026) and E-Verify Syria update (July 1, 2026). Check these pages regularly — further updates are expected as lower courts respond to the Supreme Court ruling.
If you have employees with TPS-based EADs from Haiti or Syria, a compliance-oriented approach is to begin that assessment today. The decision of what comes next for each employee — whether a new visa category is available, what timelines are realistic, what documentation they can present — requires an individual immigration review.
Why this changes the planning calculus
Before June 25, 2026, TPS terminations were frequently paused by federal courts during the litigation period. Employers managing TPS employees had some basis for assuming that even after a termination announcement, there would likely be months of judicial process before anything changed. That assumption no longer holds in the same way.
Future litigation challenging TPS terminations may offer less protection than employers may have expected. The Court's reasoning significantly narrows the grounds on which lower courts can intervene, even where future terminations are challenged on procedural or constitutional grounds.
This does not mean additional TPS terminations are certain. But for HR planning purposes, it means that upcoming TPS expiration dates — for El Salvador in September, for Ukraine and Sudan in October — should be treated as real hard deadlines, not the start of a period where courts will likely buy more time.
What HR leaders should do now
Step 1: Review your TPS employee population
Review your I-9 records to identify employees with TPS-based EADs. Look at the document categories, EAD designation codes, and expiration dates, and map those against the current list of affected countries and effective termination dates. Do not sort by country of origin — base your review on the I-9 documentation presented and the applicable USCIS guidance for each TPS designation.
The compliant approach is to identify employees based on document type and TPS EAD category codes (A-12 for TPS granted, C-19 for TPS pending), not by nationality. Do not make assumptions about which employees hold TPS based on country of origin or perceived national identity. That approach creates discrimination risk. The I-9 record itself tells you what documentation each employee presented and what designation applies.
HR should not ask employees to prove their nationality as part of this review. The review should be based on the I-9 documentation already on file and any reverification documents the employee chooses to provide.
Step 2: Begin reverification conversations through immigration counsel
For employees whose TPS-based authorization has been affected, HR's role is to create the space for an individual immigration assessment. That means getting each affected employee connected to immigration counsel quickly so their specific options can be evaluated.
Some employees will have other visa paths. Some will not. Some may qualify for employer sponsorship. Some may need more time than the timeline allows. Those determinations need to happen at the individual level, not by assumption.
Step 3: Do not wait for employees to raise this
Many employees are anxious and may not know how to start this conversation with HR. A proactive outreach — letting affected employees know that HR is aware of the situation and is working to assess options — is far better than an emergency conversation after someone's authorization lapses and you have a compliance problem.
You do not need to have all the answers. You need to communicate that you are aware, that you are taking it seriously, and that you are getting each person connected to the right support.
Step 4: Document your process
Keep records of when you initiated reverification workflows, when you notified employees, and what actions you took for each case. If your process is ever questioned, documentation of a good-faith, timely effort matters.
What to watch for the rest of 2026
The Supreme Court ruling does not create a wave of automatic terminations. Existing valid TPS designations remain in place until DHS takes action to terminate them. What changes is the speed at which a termination, if announced, could take effect without judicial interference.
For the rest of 2026, the situations worth monitoring:
Building a program that does not depend on court pauses
For the last several years, one implicit assumption in how many companies managed TPS employees was that litigation would slow terminations enough to buy time. HR teams built workflows and timelines around that assumption. The Supreme Court's ruling makes that assumption unreliable.
That does not mean TPS employees are unmanageable — it means the operational program needs to work differently.
Know your exposure before the announcement
The time to assess alternatives for TPS employees is before a termination is announced, not after. Once a termination announcement comes, the window to file a cap-subject visa petition, start a PERM, or explore other options is compressed. Before the ruling, that window was effectively extended by litigation. It may no longer be.
For each TPS employee in a role you want to retain, you should already know: Do they qualify for employer sponsorship? Which visa category? How long would it take? That analysis does not take long if you do it ahead of time, and it can be the difference between retaining someone and losing them.
Treat TPS expiration dates like visa expiration dates
Set calendar flags at 180 days and 90 days before every TPS designation expiration, just as you would for an H-1B or OPT EAD. When those flags go off, trigger the assessment process automatically rather than waiting to see whether DHS extends. If DHS extends, no harm done. If DHS terminates, you are already three months into your planning rather than starting from zero.
Build the alternative visa conversation into onboarding
For new TPS employees, the alternative visa conversation should happen during onboarding, not as a crisis response. Understanding their background, immigration history, and eligibility for sponsorship early means you have options when you need them.
Keep communication channels open
TPS employees follow these developments closely. When there is a court ruling, a Federal Register notice, or news coverage of a potential termination, they are reading it. An HR team that says nothing leaves employees to assume the worst. Even a short message — "We're aware of the recent development and are reviewing our employee population to understand the impact. We will follow up individually" — creates trust and reduces panic that affects productivity and retention.
Common questions from HR teams
No. The ruling specifically dissolved the injunctions holding Haiti and Syria terminations in place. Other TPS designations — Ukraine, Sudan, El Salvador — remain valid until DHS takes affirmative action to terminate them. What changed is that future termination decisions face far less judicial recourse than before. The ruling does not itself create new terminations.
Their underlying termination orders predate the Supreme Court ruling and were paused by separate court orders. USCIS issued EAD extensions for employees in these countries through July 1, 2026 under those court orders. As of today, those extensions have expired. Check the USCIS TPS country pages for South Sudan, Burma, and Ethiopia for the most current guidance. The Supreme Court ruling makes the underlying stays significantly harder to sustain, but they have not been formally dissolved as of the ruling date. This situation is actively developing and requires close monitoring.
Start with the I-9 record. Review what documentation the employee presented and what the expiration date is. Do not make any employment decisions based on nationality. E-Verify issued updated guidance on July 1, 2026 setting July 10, 2026 as the current operative date for I-9 purposes — see the official Haiti and Syria pages, and check back for updates. Engage immigration counsel to assess whether this specific employee has another basis for work authorization before taking any employment action.
It depends on the employee's role and the timeline available. H-1B cap-subject petitions require lottery registration, which opens in March 2027 for an October 2027 start. If the employee previously held H-1B status within the last six years, they may qualify as cap-exempt, which can move faster. PERM is the more durable long-term solution but takes 18 to 22 months for a standard case — it is not a short-term fix. For employees in specialty roles, O-1 or other categories may be worth evaluating with counsel. The earlier these conversations start, the more options remain open.
Three things help most. First, make sure immigration counsel or your immigration services provider has a process for flagging material TPS changes to you directly — not just during regular check-ins. Second, treat TPS expiration dates as calendar items, not open-ended situations. Set flags at 180 and 90 days before every designation expires. Third, when major immigration news breaks, reach out to counsel proactively rather than waiting for their monthly update. The gap between a court ruling and its operational impact on your workforce is often measured in days, not weeks.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. The TPS situation is actively evolving and the impact on individual employees depends on their specific immigration history and documentation. Consult qualified immigration counsel before making decisions about employees whose status may be affected.
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