“Stuck In Limbo: Temporary Protected Status in the U.S”

Condensed version

Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY) once said, "There is nothing so permanent in US immigration law as a temporary status (Frelick, 2020)." The senator was referring to the slurry of policies used by the U.S to render immigrants on temporary and insecure legal statuses. One prime example is Temporary Protected Status (TPS), under which more than 300,000 migrants from countries such as El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua have resided for over two decades, despite its initial design as a short-term relief measure (Wilson, 2021; Frelick, 2020).

TPS, created as a part of the Immigration Act of 1990, is a discretionary immigration tool designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security. It is used to provide protection for individuals living in the U.S. from countries facing war, famine, natural disasters, or other dangerous conditions in their home countries (Wilson, 2024). Migrants designated for TPS can apply for a temporary stay of deportation and a work permit. TPS may be designated for a nationality any time after a disaster has occurred. However, only individuals who can prove they have resided in the U.S. before the initial designation date, and assuming they meet several other requirements, are eligible to receive it (Harrington, 2018).

TPS, while providing some protection to migrants, does not guarantee a path to permanent citizenship or protection. Scholars like Cecilia Menjivar have criticized TPS and similar policies for rendering migrants into a liminal space, where they are "not fully documented or undocumented, but often straddling both [categories] (Menjivar, 2006)." Menjivar coined the term "liminal legality" to encapsulate individuals who have precarious and unstable legal protections and lack the social benefits guaranteed to other citizens or migrants (Menjivar and Abrego, 2012).

TPS, like other temporary protection programs, does not provide access to many social benefits, despite the beneficiaries living on it contributing to those same programs through taxes. TPS holders, 95% of whom were employed as of 2023, pay billions of dollars a year in taxes that support U.S. social security programs (Wong, 2023). Yet, they cannot access most federal public assistance programs, including SNAP, TANF, SSI, and Medicaid (Lacarte, Gelatte, and Podplesky, 2024). Additionally, TPS holders are ineligible to receive federal financial aid, such as Pell grants, to attend school. 

This acute lack of a social safety net would be tolerable if individuals were only asked to live on TPS for a short time and then given a path to Legal permanent residency and a more stable legal protection. However, TPS holders are often unable to obtain permanent status and, therefore, a large portion have become stranded on the benefit for over two decades. Indeed, as of March 2025, TPS has been in effect for 15 years for Haitians, 24 years for Salvadorans, 26 years for Hondurans and Nicaraguans, and 33 years for Somalis (Wilson, 2024).

TPS designations have become prolonged for several reasons. The first is that the initial TPS-inducing crisis seems temporary at first, but frequently becomes prolonged. In such cases, the Secretary of Homeland Security often decides to perpetually extend a TPS designation, rather than ending TPS and enabling the deportation of migrants to countries experiencing instability. For example, the 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador were the reason for its initial TPS designation, but their lasting damage paved the way for dozens of extensions. Similar situations in Haiti, Honduras, and Nicaragua have also led to long-term TPS holders (Schoenholtz, 2019).

Individuals who remain on TPS cannot adjust out of the status largely thanks to a 2021 Supreme Court ruling, which barred individuals who initially entered the country illegally from adjusting to Legal permanent residency, even with a valid immigration petition. TPS holders, therefore, must leave the country and then attempt to re-enter the United States legally. Unfortunately, U.S. law discourages this behavior. Any individual who has attempted to leave and then legally re-enter the country, even with an otherwise spotless criminal record, is automatically denied and banned from entering the United States again for 3-10 years. This ban dissuades many TPS individuals from attempting to obtain legal permanent residency. Instead, many remain feeling trapped by the very status created to protect them. 

Individuals with TPS are able to apply for asylum, which would grant them a path to permanent protection and enable them to circumvent the exit and re-entry process. However, even after fleeing dangerous conditions, very few TPS holders meet the narrow definition of an asylee under U.S. law. Only individuals who can prove they have been persecuted "on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion" are eligible to receive asylum(Menjivar, 2000). This notably leaves out individuals fleeing devastation from natural disasters or general fear of death from war or conflict (Schoenholtz 2019). 

With limited pathways out of TPS, many individuals have few options to change their status. All the while, they defy expectations and become ingrained in and essential to U.S. society.

TPS holders have used their benefits to settle down in the U.S and start families. As of 2017, Honduran, Haitian, and Salvadoran TPS holders had an estimated 273,000 U.S.-born children, and 6-10 percent of them have married a legal resident (Warren and Kerwin 2017).

Unfortunately, TPS holders, despite their connections to U.S society, are constantly at risk of losing their legal permission to reside in the country. Committing two or more misdemeanors, which can range from low-level offenses such as trespassing, shoplifting, or minor drug possession, automatically disqualifies an individual from holding TPS (Block, Davenport, and Quinn, 2023). Additionally, TPS holders must reapply for their status each time their country's designation is extended. For nationalities like Salvadorans, who have had their TPS extended 14 times since 2001, the re-application process becomes a significant burden (Menjivar and Abrego, 2012). 

For these reasons, and because TPS holders constantly worry that their TPS designation will be terminated, it is a tragedy that individuals must live on this status for decades. 

To address the issue, politicians introduced the Dream and Promise Acts of 2019, 2021, 2023, and 2025, which would have allowed TPS holders who have lived in the U.S for over three years to adjust to LPR. This bill would have enabled long-term, productive, and law-abiding TPS holders to finally achieve permanent status. All four versions failed in the Senate, demonstrating the difficulty of passing such legislation in the current political climate.

The alternative, one might think, would be to end TPS entirely. However, ending TPS would negatively impact current TPS holders and the U.S economy. A survey using estimates reflecting population sizes and economic contributions at the end of 2022 estimated that the total economic output of TPS migrants was $21 billion, with $5.2 billion paid in taxes and $16 billion in purchasing power. These economic gains result from TPS holders utilizing their work permits to secure jobs that better match their skills, allowing them to earn higher wages (Wong, 2023). TPS holders have therefore utilized their benefit to create positive impacts for themselves and the United States. Removing them would subject them to deportation and prevent them from making future contributions to the U.S.

Additionally, a 2021 study from the American Immigration Council found that TPS holders have higher rates of entrepreneurship than similarly aged U.S. workers. These self-employed individuals start businesses, generate additional employment opportunities, and contribute to the revitalization of declining American towns. 

One example of this revitalization is the small town of Mount Olive in North Carolina. In 2010, the town saw thousands of Haitian TPS holders arrive after their country experienced a devastating earthquake. Those migrants purchased vacant homes, opened small businesses, and ultimately contributed to the revitalization of the town's declining downtown area.

The Biden administration utilized TPS to a greater extent than prior administrations and greatly increased the TPS population through new designations. However, the Trump administration has tried to negate most of those increases and has even targeted long-term Haitian, Honduran, and Nicaraguan TPS holders. The fate of hundreds of thousands of TPS holders, many of whom have lived in the U.S. for decades, is now more uncertain than ever.

To create a durable solution to TPS, the U.S should not simply revoke the policy for hundreds of thousands of individuals as the Trump administration has tried to do. Instead, it should enact a version of the Dream and Promise Act to allow long-term TPS holders a pathway to adjust to Lawful Permanent Residency (LPR).