Temporary Protected Status And Texas

Over the last year, immigration enforcement has been turbocharged under the Trump Administration. And that includes stepped up efforts to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

As of now, about one million people have been impacted by rescinded TPS designations nationwide. In Texas, these terminations could worsen existing labor shortages in construction, cleaning, hospitality, and trucking, where TPS holders represent a significant share of the workforce.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a humanitarian designation under U.S. immigration law that allows nationals of certain countries to live and work legally in the United States when conditions in their home countries make a return unsafe. In Texas, the majority are from Venezuela, Haiti, and El Salvador, contributing significantly to the state’s economy through their work authorizations. Critics argue that repeated extensions under multiple administrations have stretched TPS beyond its original temporary design, turning it into a stopgap substitute for broader immigration reform. 

Beginning in 2025, the Department of Homeland Security started rolling back several TPS designations, arguing that conditions in those countries now meet the legal safety standards required to end the protection. As of January 14, 2026, several terminations are imminent: Haiti (ends February 3), Ethiopia (ends February 13), and Somalia (ends March 17). While Venezuela’s work permits (EADs) remain valid until October 2, 2026, for documents issued before February 5, 2025, other nationalities' permits expire immediately. Federal courts have temporarily blocked the terminations in separate cases involving Venezuela and Haiti, but the administration is still pursuing appeals to end the programs.

About 147,000 TPS holders live in Texas. Venezuelans, Haitians, and Salvadorans make up the state’s three largest TPS-protected populations. The loss of work permits could put an estimated 117,000 Texas jobs at risk. This figure reflects the group’s high employment rate of 79.4 percent, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model (PWBM).

Nationwide, TPS workers are much more likely than U.S.-born workers to work in cleaning, construction, and transportation. In major metropolitan areas, they account for about 8 to 10 percent of all hours worked in these occupations, including up to 4 percent in Houston in cleaning and transportation. 

According to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, TPS holders contributed $4.3 billion to Texas GDP in 2023. The Dallas Fed and Brookings estimate that the ongoing loss of immigrant workers could reduce Texas’s GDP growth by 0.4 percent annually through 2026, primarily due to persistent labor shortages in construction and trucking. 

The termination of TPS designations carries direct implications for Texas’s demographic stability, particularly in Harris and Dallas counties, which host the state’s largest Venezuelan and Haitian populations. According to immigration advocacy group FWD.us data, TPS protects the parents of more than 260,000 U.S. citizen children nationwide.

In Texas, this translates to approximately 28,000 U.S. citizen children living in mixed-status households. Based on the state’s 11 percent share of the national TPS population, an estimated 15,000 to 18,000 Texas households face the immediate risk of losing their legal status. For these families, losing work authorization could mean separation and a drop in household income, which would affect local rents and spending in Houston and North Texas.

The future of the TPS program will be decided in ongoing court cases. In National TPS Alliance v. Noem, the Supreme Court allowed terminations to continue while appeals are ongoing, but the litigation remains active. On January 14, 2026, the Ninth Circuit heard arguments to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security followed proper legal procedures when changing the program. Plaintiffs argue that the administration did not provide an apparent reason for reversing earlier decisions that found conditions in these countries to be unsafe.

Courts recently invalidated DHS termination orders for Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua on December 31, 2025, and issued a stay for South Sudan on December 30. These rulings show that procedural challenges still pose a significant hurdle for the agency. In Texas, the situation is mixed, as DHS has allowed Venezuelan work permits to remain valid through October 2, 2026. Still, other nationalities face immediate expiration as the agency continues its appeals in the Ninth Circuit.