Ethiopia and South Sudan TPS Work Permits Stay Valid to August 6, 2026 Under Court Order: What Texas Holders Can Have Reviewed

What Changed, and When

On July 30, 2026, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services released updated guidance on the terminations of Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia and South Sudan. The same notices are mirrored on E-Verify for employers. The guidance supersedes the notices issued on July 17, 2026.

The operative fact is short: the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts stayed the Secretary of Homeland Security’s termination decisions, and the affected Employment Authorization Documents remain valid by order of that court.

The specific documents named in the guidance are:

• Ethiopia TPS EADs with an original expiration date of June 12, 2024 or December 12, 2025.
• South Sudan TPS EADs with an original expiration date of November 3, 2023, May 3, 2025, or November 3, 2025.

For employment verification, the guidance instructs that on Form I-9 the employee enters “as per court order” in the Expiration Date field in Section 1, and the employer enters “August 6, 2026” in Section 2 with a note in the Additional Information box. In E-Verify, employers enter August 6, 2026 as the employment authorization expiration date.

One point matters more than the date itself: August 6 is a placeholder, not a deadline anyone has set as final. This is the fourth such date in about a month. Earlier guidance in this same sequence used July 10, then July 17, and now August 6, with each notice superseding the one before it. Practitioners following the litigation have described these as placeholder dates that the Department of Homeland Security may update again as the cases proceed. The guidance itself tells employers to check the USCIS websites regularly for updated information.

The Litigation Behind the Date

Both country designations were terminated by DHS and both terminations were then paused by a federal court.

South Sudan. DHS published a notice terminating the designation at 90 Fed. Reg. 50484 (Nov. 6, 2025), effective January 5, 2026. On December 30, 2025, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts stayed that termination. South Sudan had been designated for TPS since 2011, and the termination was reported to reach roughly 5,000 people nationwide.

Ethiopia. DHS published a notice terminating that designation on December 15, 2025, effective February 13, 2026. A judge in the same Massachusetts district court stayed that decision on January 30, 2026, and has continued the postponement since. That termination was also reported to reach roughly 5,000 people nationwide. The case is African Communities Together v. Noem, No. 26-cv-10278-BEM (D. Mass.).

The Supreme Court decision that changed the backdrop. On June 25, 2026 the Supreme Court decided Mullin v. Doe, No. 25-1083, 6–3, in an opinion by Justice Alito, with a dissent by Justice Kagan joined by Justices Sotomayor and Jackson. As the Congressional Research Service summarizes it, the Court held that federal courts are barred by statute from reviewing non-constitutional challenges to the Secretary’s decisions to designate, terminate, or extend TPS. The decision arose from the Haiti and Syria terminations, which took effect on July 27, 2026.

USCIS states that the current extensions provide temporary relief while the lower courts work through the impact of Mullin on the remaining cases. That is why the dates keep moving in short increments: the district court is issuing near-term orders while it sorts out what the Supreme Court’s ruling means for designations that were already stayed.

Who in Texas This Reaches

This is a national action tied to nationality and immigration status, not to any state, and neither USCIS notice contains a Texas-specific breakdown. We are not going to invent one.

What is on the public record is that Texas holds one of the largest TPS populations in the country. Congressional Research Service figures reported in 2025 put 147,080 TPS holders in Texas as of March 31, 2025 — second only to Florida — across all designated countries combined. That figure covers every TPS nationality, not Ethiopians and South Sudanese specifically, and should not be read as a count of the people described on this page.

In practical terms, the July 30 guidance reaches three groups in Texas:

• Ethiopian and South Sudanese TPS holders living in Texas whose EADs carry one of the original expiration dates listed above.
• Their employers, who have to record a date on Form I-9 and in E-Verify that keeps changing, and who are being told to re-check the government’s pages rather than rely on a printed expiration date.
• Family members whose household income, health coverage, or housing depends on that work authorization continuing.

The largest East African communities in Texas are concentrated in the Dallas–Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas, so that is where the practical effect is most likely to be felt — though TPS holders live throughout the state.

What This Changes Legally

1. The work permit is valid because a court says so, not because DHS granted an extension. That distinction matters. DHS has terminated both designations; a district court has postponed the effect of those terminations. The authority holding the documents in force is a judicial order in ongoing litigation, and it is being renewed in short increments.

2. The printed expiration date on the card is not the operative date. The guidance exists precisely because the card in someone’s wallet says June 12, 2024, or November 3, 2023, or another date already past. That is why the employee writes “as per court order” on Form I-9 rather than a date. An employer who reads only the card can reach the wrong conclusion, and USCIS has published downloadable alert pages for exactly this reason.

3. Nothing here restores a TPS designation. The terminations have not been reversed. What has happened is that their effect is postponed while the courts finish. What comes next is genuinely unsettled, and no one — including this page — can tell you how the litigation ends.

4. Mullin narrowed one avenue, not every avenue. The holding is about the reviewability of the Secretary’s TPS decisions under the statute. It did not decide anyone’s individual eligibility for any other form of relief, and it left constitutional claims outside its holding. Whether some other path exists for a particular person is an individual question with an individual answer.

What Kind of Option Might Apply

Nothing on this page tells you what your status is, how long your work authorization will last, or what you should do. Those depend on your own record. What experienced Texas immigration attorneys describe working through with people in this situation includes:

• Reading your actual documents — confirming which EAD you hold, which original expiration date is printed on it, and whether the July 30 guidance covers it at all.
• Whether any other status or form of relief may be available — family-based or employment-based petitions, asylum, withholding, humanitarian categories, or adjustment of status. Many long-time TPS holders have never had their file reviewed for anything other than TPS.
• Timing questions that have their own clocks — some forms of relief have filing deadlines that run independently of anything happening in this litigation, and those clocks do not pause while the TPS cases proceed.
• Employment verification problems — what to do if an employer misreads a card, or if a job offer or a background check stalls over a date the government itself keeps revising.
• Travel — leaving the United States while a designation is under litigation raises questions that are worth answering before a ticket is bought, not after.
• What a termination would actually mean if the stay is eventually lifted, and what could be prepared in advance rather than in a hurry.

A consumer-protection note Texas attorneys raise often: immigration work should be handled by a licensed attorney or by a representative accredited by the U.S. Department of Justice. In some countries a notario público is a trained legal professional; in Texas a notary public is not, and cannot give immigration advice. The Texas Attorney General’s consumer protection office takes complaints about that kind of practice. People under time pressure are the people most often targeted by it.

Why Acting Quickly Can Matter

The dates in this sequence are facts, and they are worth having in front of you when you talk to a lawyer:

• November 6, 2025 — Federal Register notice terminating the South Sudan designation, effective January 5, 2026.
• December 15, 2025 — Federal Register notice terminating the Ethiopia designation, effective February 13, 2026.
• December 30, 2025 and January 30, 2026 — the district court stays of those two terminations.
• June 25, 2026 — the Supreme Court’s decision in Mullin v. Doe.
• July 30, 2026 — the current USCIS guidance, superseding the July 17 notices.
• August 6, 2026 — the date employers are currently told to enter on Form I-9 and in E-Verify, subject to further updates.

The reason to talk to someone now is ordinary rather than alarming. Right now the work permits are valid and the person holding one has time and options. That is the easiest posture from which to have a file reviewed. Waiting until a date has passed narrows what a lawyer can do, and a review that takes an hour today can save a considerable amount of difficulty later.

It is also worth keeping perspective. A shifting date on a government web page is not a removal order, a denial, or a finding against anyone. For many people this is a document-and-calendar problem with a known answer, and for some it turns out that a path they never knew about was available the whole time. The only way to find out which is true for you is to have a lawyer look.

Sources

1. USCIS — Update on Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia (Release: July 30, 2026)
2. USCIS — Update on Termination of Temporary Protected Status for South Sudan (Release: July 30, 2026)
3. E-Verify — Update on Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Ethiopia (Release: July 30, 2026)
4. E-Verify — Update on Termination of Temporary Protected Status for South Sudan (Release: July 30, 2026)
5. Federal Register — Termination of the Designation of South Sudan for Temporary Protected Status, 90 Fed. Reg. 50484 (Nov. 6, 2025)
6. Federal Register — Termination of the Designation of Ethiopia for Temporary Protected Status (Dec. 15, 2025)
7. Supreme Court of the United States — Mullin v. Doe, No. 25-1083 (June 25, 2026), slip opinion
8. Congressional Research Service — Mullin v. Doe: Supreme Court Allows Termination of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti and Syria (LSB11446)
9. USCIS — Temporary Protected Status Designated Country: Ethiopia
10. Erickson Immigration Group — USCIS Extends TPS-Related Work Authorization for South Sudan and Ethiopia Through August 6, 2026 (July 31, 2026)
11. Fragomen — TPS Employment Authorization for Ethiopia and South Sudan Extended Through August 6
12. Texas Signal — TPS and Texas: By the Numbers (Congressional Research Service figures as of March 31, 2025)