TPS for El Salvador Ends September 9: What Providers Should Know

Recommend

As Salvadoran Temporary Protected Status ends September 9, 2026, aging services employers should prepare to reverify work authorization and assess potential workforce impacts.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for El Salvador is scheduled to terminate on September 9, 2026, ending a designation that has been in place since 2001. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed the termination date in an August 12 update and issued companion guidance on Form I-9 and E-Verify procedures for the transition which states "The Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation of El Salvador and related benefits are set to terminate on Sept. 9, 2026."

What's changing

USCIS is automatically extending expired TPS-based Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) through September 9 for eligible El Salvador TPS holders who have not yet received renewal cards. Employers should enter "Sept. 9, 2026" as the expiration date on Form I-9 and in E-Verify, with a note in the Additional Information field referencing the USCIS alert. Absent further litigation or a new designation, work authorization for El Salvador TPS holders lapses on that date.

The termination follows the Supreme Court's June 25 ruling in Mullin v. Doe, which cleared the way for the administration to proceed with TPS terminations previously slowed by lower-court challenges. Congressional Democrats, including Representative Tom Suozzi (D-NY), pressed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to extend the designation, arguing that most beneficiaries have no other path to legal status. Fwd.us and the National TPS Alliance estimate that Salvadoran TPS holders contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy each year, underscoring the scale of the population affected.

Why this matters for the aging services workforce

While public datasets do not currently support a reliable national estimate of how many Salvadoran TPS holders work specifically in direct care or aging services, roughly 152,000 Salvadoran TPS holders are active in the labor force nationally. They are concentrated most heavily in California, Texas, Maryland, New York, and Virginia where labor force data show substantial employment in construction, building and grounds maintenance, transportation, manufacturing, and food service-sectors that overlap with, and often feed into, the broader long-term services and supports labor market.

What providers can do now

Aging services employers with Salvadoran TPS holders on staff should review I-9 records now, confirm which employees hold EADs affected by the September 9 deadline, and prepare for potential reverification or separation conversations well before that date.

Immigration reform, including durable status for long-settled workers like Salvadoran TPS holders, remains a core pillar of LeadingAge's workforce policy agenda. LeadingAge will continue to track developments as the termination date approaches, including any litigation that could affect the timeline.