On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court decided that the Trump administration can cancel a legal status that allowed more than 350,000 migrants to live and work in the United States. The status is called Temporary Protected Status, or TPS.

TPS lets people from countries in crisis—due to war, earthquakes, or other disasters—stay and work legally in America temporarily. It is not a path to becoming a permanent resident. The key thing the Supreme Court decided was that people who depend on TPS cannot use the courts to stop the government from canceling it.

What Led to This Decision

The Trump administration had already begun canceling TPS for several countries. In 2025, it ended TPS for Venezuela and Haiti, saying conditions had improved. Honduras followed. Each time the government made a move, people who would lose their status went to court to try to stop it.

The Supreme Court had been watching these cases for months. There were emergency requests to delay the cancellations, and finally the Court decided it needed to rule on the underlying issue—which it did on June 25, 2026.

Not every court sided with the administration. In April 2026, a judge said the government could not cancel TPS for about 5,000 Ethiopians. But that case had not reached the Supreme Court yet.

Who This Affects and What Comes Next

The 350,000 people losing this protection have often lived in America for years. Many own homes, have children born here who are U.S. citizens, or own small businesses. For them, this decision creates real uncertainty.

The Supreme Court did not say Congress cannot create new protections for these people or redesignate countries for TPS. However, with the current makeup of Congress, new legislation seems unlikely.

Now the Department of Homeland Security controls what happens next. They will decide how quickly to end people's status and whether to grant individual exceptions on humanitarian grounds. For the people affected, this ruling shifted power away from courts and to the executive branch. The practical question—who stays and who leaves—is now decided by the administration, not by judges reviewing whether the cancellations were done fairly.