TPS Holders Add $29 Billion to U.S. Economy as Supreme Court Prepares to Decide Fate of Haitian and Syrian Protections

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders contribute $29 billion annually in spending power to the U.S. Economy and pay nearly $8 billion in taxes, according to a report by FWD.us published on April 22, 2026, just days before the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments on whether the Trump administration can end the program for Haitian and Syrian nationals.

The report, released Tuesday, found that since 2001, TPS holders have injected $262 billion into the U.S. Economy. Nearly 1.3 million people currently live in the United States under TPS, some for more than 20 years, after fleeing war, environmental disaster, or political instability in their home countries.

Of the nearly 1.3 million TPS holders, 830,000 are in the labor force, with significant concentrations in construction, retail, hospitality, transportation, and manufacturing. Long-term status holders from El Salvador and Honduras have labor-force participation rates of 89% and 84%, respectively, both well above the overall U.S. Labor-force participation rate of 62% and comparable to prime-age workers aged 25 to 54.

The Trump administration has sought to end TPS designations for multiple countries over the past year, including Syria and Haiti, and has either terminated or moved to end protections for as many as a dozen nations, such as Somalia and South Sudan. These efforts have faced legal and congressional resistance, including a February federal court ruling that blocked the termination of TPS for Haitian nationals, up to 350,000 of whom reside in the U.S.

Last week, House Republicans joined Democrats to force a vote on a bill that would extend Haitian eligibility for TPS by three years. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 29, 2026, on the administration’s attempt to remove TPS for Syrian and Haitian nationals, a decision that could affect hundreds of thousands of families and influence the status of other countries currently under review.

Attorney General Letitia James of New York co-led a coalition of 18 other attorneys general in filing an amicus brief urging the Court to uphold lower court decisions delaying the termination of TPS for Haiti and Syria, emphasizing that TPS holders serve as business owners, workers, teachers, and parents in communities nationwide.

The administration’s broader immigration crackdown, which includes efforts to end TPS, is projected to shrink the U.S. Labor force by 6.8 million by 2028 and 15.7 million by 2035, according to the National Foundation for American Policy. Economists warn that reducing the immigrant workforce — often seen as complementary labor filling key gaps in the economy — could slow economic growth and increase inflation.

As of April 23, 2026, the future of TPS for Haitian and Syrian nationals remains pending before the Supreme Court, with the economic contributions of the broader TPS population underscoring the potential fiscal and labor market consequences of any termination.