- Fact Sheet
The Contributions of Temporary Protected Status Holders to the U.S. Economy
Published
Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a program that allows certain individuals from designated countries that are facing severe temporary conditions, such as ongoing armed conflicts or natural disasters, to stay in the United States until it is deemed safe to return home. More than 354,000 immigrants lived and worked in the United States under TPS in 2021 alone.
TPS is granted for six, 12, or 18 months at a time, though the government can, and often does, extend the designation. During this designated period, the program provides TPS holders work authorization and protection from deportation. If the federal government decides to terminate or not to extend a TPS designation—as the Trump administration threatened to do for many designated countries—TPS holders, many of whom have lived in the United States for two decades or more, could be forced to return to places where violence is ongoing, such as El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, or Sudan.
For many, those realities would be cause enough to support the TPS program. However, additional benefits of allowing TPS holders to remain in the United States include workforce and economic considerations. In this report, we detail how the more than 354,000 people holding TPS status in 2021, the latest year for which socioeconomic data is available, made a significant impact on the U.S. economy.
Should their designation lapse, the deportation of TPS holders would describe a blow not only to immigrants and their family members, friends, employees, and coworkers in the United States, but also to the U.S. economy more broadly. In 2021 alone, TPS holders contributed more than $2.2 billion in taxes, including almost $1 billion to state and local governments. They also held $8 billion in spending power, which supports countless U.S. businesses when spent on items like groceries, haircuts, or rent.
Help us fight for immigration justice!
The research is clear – immigrants are more likely to win their cases with a lawyer by their side. But very few can get attorneys.
Introducing the Immigration Justice Campaign Access Fund.
Your support sends attorneys, provides interpreters, and delivers justice.
Immigration Justice Campaign is an initiative of American Immigration Council and American Immigration Lawyers Association. The mission is to increase free legal services for immigrants navigating our complicated immigration system and leverage the voices and experiences of those most directly impacted by our country’s immigration policies to inform legal and advocacy strategies. We bring together a broad network of volunteers who provide legal assistance and advocate for due process for immigrants with a humane approach that includes universal legal representation and other community-based support for individuals during their immigration cases.