TPS And Texas: By The Numbers

On June 25, the Supreme Court ruled in Mullin v. Doe that the Temporary Protected Status statute bars federal courts from hearing non-constitutional challenges to the Department of Homeland Security's decisions to end a country's designation. Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the majority, held that the law's judicial-review bar is clear and broad and covers the Secretary's determinations to designate, extend, or terminate TPS. The ruling reversed lower-court orders that had postponed terminations for Haiti and Syria.

Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented, writing that the majority had wrongly undone the lower courts relief and pointing to the administration's statements about the affected nationalities.

The Trump administration has moved to end TPS for 13 of the 17 countries that had the status as the president started his second term. Seth Chandler, who teaches constitutional law at the University of Houston, told Houston Public Media the decision streamlines the administration's ability to revoke status not only for Haitians and Syrians but for Hondurans, Nepalis, Afghans, and "potentially Venezuelans as well.”

As of March 31, 2025, Texas held 147,080 TPS recipients, the second-largest population of any state after Florida. Across the country, Venezuelans are the largest TPS nationality at about 47 percent of all recipients, followed by Haitians at about 25 percent and Salvadorans at roughly 13 percent.

In early 2025, Ex-Secretary Kristi Noem moved to end the 2023 Venezuela designation, which a Biden-era extension had set to run through October 2, 2026. A federal judge in California twice blocked the move, and the Supreme Court twice stayed those orders, in May and again on October 3, 2025, letting the termination take effect while the case continued.

The Ninth Circuit ruled in January 2026 that Noem lacked the authority to vacate the designation, but the Supreme Court's stays kept the termination in force.

For now, Venezuelans who received a work permit on or before February 5, 2025, with an October 2, 2026, expiration date keep that authorization until then. That date is a fixed cliff for much of the Venezuelan workforce in Texas , and Mullin undercuts the legal footing that had been holding it back.

What Texas Stands to Lose

TPS holders in Texas generated $4.3 billion in state GDP in 2023, the Penn Wharton Budget Model found, second only to Florida's $10.7 billion. Nationally, nearly 95 percent of TPS holders were employed as of 2021, and they reported self-employment at a higher rate than U.S.-born workers.

Their work is concentrated where Texas is already short of labor. TPS holders are 3.2 times more likely than U.S.-born workers to work in construction and 5.4 times more likely to work in building cleaning and maintenance, and in major metros they make up 8 to 10 percent of the hours worked in some occupations. In 2021, TPS households in Texas paid $140.9 million in combined state and local taxes, one of four states where the figure topped $110 million.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas reported in October that immigration policy changes would hurt the ability to hire and retain foreign-born workers at one in five Texas businesses in 2025, with 13 percent saying they had already felt a negative effect, and the bank noted its survey likely understates the impact because it leaves out construction and agriculture.

The Rest of the List

Since the start of 2025, DHS has terminated TPS for Afghanistan, Cameroon, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, and Haiti, among other countries, most taking effect across the second half of the year. At least 700,000 people lost TPS in 2025 alone. Ukraine's designation runs through October 19, 2026, one of four the administration has not moved to end, along with El Salvador, Sudan, and Lebanon.

USCIS guidance lists July 1, 2026 as the work-authorization expiration date for Haitian TPS holders on Form I-9 and E-Verify, a date the ruling converts from a litigation placeholder into the operative near-term deadline, with no updated post-ruling guidance from DHS yet and the possibility it lands sooner. Venezuelans whose work permits carry the October 2, 2026, expiration date hold authorization through it, the deadline the courts can no longer postpone.

Texas's Salvadorans, the largest Texas group the administration has not moved to terminate, hold status under a designation that runs through September 9, 2026, with a renewal decision due July 11, 2026.