From the official announcement by USCIS ↗
According to a notice from the U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services (USCIS) dated August 10, 2026, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation for Somali nationals remains in active legal dispute, causing the actual expiration date of work permits to be repeatedly extended. Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had determined that Somalia no longer qualifies to maintain this protection status, a decision published in the Federal Register on January 14, 2026 and set to terminate on March 17, 2026. However, a federal court in Massachusetts issued an order halting the termination in the case of African Communities Together v. Noem just before the deadline expired.
Shifting expiration dates have created chaos for both workers and businesses.
Who Is Affected and When
Holders of Employment Authorization Documents under Somali TPS with expiration dates listed as March 17, 2023, September 17, 2024, or March 17, 2026 remain valid under the court order despite the outdated dates on their physical cards. This is a temporary measure pending guidance from lower courts following the Supreme Court's ruling in Mullin v. Doe in June 2026. Employers completing Form I-9 for such employees are instructed to write "as per court order" in Part 1 and August 12, 2026 in Part 2, with a notation in the Additional Information field; the E-Verify system also uses August 12, 2026 as the expiration date benchmark.
Broader Context
This confusion does not affect only Somalia. In July 2026, the Trump administration extended work permits for hundreds of thousands of people holding TPS from Haiti and six other nations. In Massachusetts, thousands of Haitian TPS holders previously faced job loss when employers failed to update the actual expiration date in time. The New York Times noted that continuous deadline changes have created widespread confusion among business owners across the country, a pattern now repeating with Somalia.
Analysis
The Somalia case demonstrates a pattern repeated multiple times in 2026: the administration announces TPS termination, courts intervene with temporary stays, and then USCIS must continuously update technical expiration dates to prevent employers from mistakenly firing people with valid permits. Haiti's case is the most recent example: after the Supreme Court ruled in June 2026 allowing termination of protection, federal agencies gave businesses only two weeks to adjust, and a Boston city council member described the situation of "shifting expiration dates" as the source of workplace panic. With Somalia, the wait for lower courts to align with the Mullin v. Doe ruling means the August 12, 2026 benchmark will almost certainly shift again in the coming months.
Diaspora Impact
This regulation applies to Somali nationals holding TPS and does not directly involve Vietnamese Americans. However, small business owners employing temporary protected status workers from other countries should note the new instructions for completing Form I-9 and E-Verify to avoid mistakenly terminating employees with valid permits, as the same court-ordered extension mechanism could apply to other TPS categories in the future. Businesses should check the USCIS website directly before making personnel decisions rather than relying on the expiration date printed on an employee's old card.
Bảo Nguyễn
Bảo Nguyễn founded Saigon Sentinel to give the Vietnamese diaspora truly independent, in-depth community coverage at a time when misinformation moves faster than fact-checks and the language barrier makes verification harder than it should be. He sets the editorial standards and quality controls that govern the reporting, chooses the subjects, writes and edits each article, reads it against its sources before publication, audits published output, and handles corrections.