A US federal court has declined to block a key immigration provision, allowing strict new limits on work permits for Temporary Protected Status holders to remain in force.
The US District Court for the District of Massachusetts on August 5, 2026, denied plaintiffs’ request to stay USCIS’s implementation of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s limits on TPS-based employment authorization documents.
The case, Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts et al. v. US Citizenship and Immigration Services et al., No. 1:26-cv-13038, also saw the court grant limited relief on a separate asylum fee provision.
Plaintiffs had challenged several USCIS actions implementing H.R. 1, including a July 2025 Federal Register notice establishing the one-year TPS employment authorization document cap.
The challenge also targeted a March 2026 USCIS website update applying that cap to previously issued 540-day automatic extensions, along with related provisions of an April 2026 Interim Final Rule.
The court rejected each of the plaintiffs’ challenges to the TPS employment authorization document cap in turn, finding none sufficient to warrant a stay.
It held that USCIS was not required to engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking because the agency was implementing Congress’ statutory directive in H.R. 1.
The court also concluded that applying the one-year cap to previously issued 540-day automatic EAD extensions for TPS beneficiaries from El Salvador, Sudan, and Ukraine was not impermissibly retroactive.
The court acknowledged the new statutory framework could result in gaps in employment authorization, but held that the possibility of such gaps did not render the Cap Policy unlawful.
It noted that USCIS could issue one-year automatic extensions to avoid gaps, and that any future failure to comply with the TPS statute’s requirement that employment authorization remain effective throughout the TPS designation “may result in independent liability,” but such liability would be “independent of the mere implementation of the Cap Policy as required by H.R. 1.”
In a separate finding, the court granted a nationwide stay under the Administrative Procedure Act with respect to April 2026 Interim Final Rule provisions authorising USCIS to reject pending asylum applications and initiate removal proceedings for failure to pay the Annual Asylum Fee.
The court found those consequences were not required by H.R. 1 and likely violated the Administrative Procedure Act’s notice-and-comment requirements.
The August 5 decision supersedes the court’s temporary July 21 administrative stay, altering the practical landscape for employers managing workers with TPS-based documentation.
Employers are advised to continue following current USCIS guidance regarding TPS-based EAD automatic extensions and Form I-9 reverification in light of the ruling.
The temporary relief preserving previously extended TPS employment authorization document expiration dates is no longer in effect, although the litigation remains pending on the merits.