The U.S. faces financial losses as the Trump administration ends temporary protections for thousands of immigrants

The government protection that allows more than a million immigrants to live and work in the U.S. because it is unsafe for them to go home expired last month for people from Syria and Haiti.

It is set to conclude for more than 170,000 people from El Salvador in September, and in October 100,000 from Ukraine could face the same termination of temporary protected status (TPS).

The Trump administration promises to deport those who lose legal status ― a fate advocates say is guaranteed to hurt immigrant families that include spouses and children who are American citizens.

But immigration researchers and organizations say that immigrants will not be the only ones hurt, that the rest of the U.S. will pay a big financial price ― in lost taxes, wages, spending, and services, as large numbers of workers and dollars exit the U.S. economy.

The nation’s 1.3 million TPS-holders work at higher proportions than the country as a whole, pay billions of dollars each year in federal and local taxes, and contribute to the solvency of a Social Security system from which they are unlikely to ever draw benefits.

“Even if you don’t care anything about immigration in this country, removing this many highly productive workers from the economy is going to hurt Americans in their pocketbooks,” said Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, a Chicago-based, bipartisan network of companies and CEOs. “Americans are going to get hit, in terms of inflation, in healthcare, in housing.”

Many TPS-holders work in critical jobs and industries. They are the people who build homes, keep restaurants running, fix plumbing and wiring, and, particularly in the case of Haitians, care for the ill and elderly.

“If you access our healthcare system in any way, shape, or form, particularly elderly care or senior care, you’re going to feel it,” said Anuj Gupta, president and CEO of the Welcoming Center in Philadelphia, “Whether it’s shortage of staff at facilities, whether it’s longer wait times to get in for the appointment that you need. … And if we start going down the road of Salvadorians, Ukrainians, Venezuelans, all having their TPS removed, then those kinds of day-to-day impacts will be more profound.”

TPS-holders live in every state. Florida is home to the largest number, about 404,000, followed by Texas and New York. New Jersey ranks seventh, with 43,360, and Pennsylvania 14th, with 23,770, according to the National Immigration Forum.

“Certain states are just going to get obliterated by this,” said Jeff Hornstein, executive director of the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia, a regional policy and research organization.

The Philadelphia region will get hit, too. The league examined four countries where designations are ending or at risk ― El Salvador, Ukraine, Syria, and Haiti.

In the local area, between 4,100 and 6,100 workers from those countries depend on TPS, and as many as 4,600 could lose legal employment authorization, the league said.

In the city, those TPS workers bring home $36 million to $76 million in annual salaries and pay $1.5 million to $3 million in wage tax.

The most affected local sectors are predicted to be construction, building cleaning and landscaping, trucking and warehousing, manufacturing, restaurants, and retail.

The league’s Saloni Tandon, who directs research and analytics, said area residents may notice changes in everyday life, such as the cleanliness of offices and buildings, and the speed of delivery for goods.

“Because our minimum wage is so low, there are fewer workers coming into the region,” she said. “So it’s going to get very tricky and very stressful to compensate for that.”

The American Business Immigration Coalition notes that while the U.S. has only 4% of the world population, it produces 25% of all gross national product and captures 65% of global stock market value. That is tied to the strength of the economy, which depends on the growth and productivity of the workforce.

With birth rates falling below replacement levels and a shrinking pool of domestic labor, the coalition said, the United States must embrace a robust legal immigration system to ensure sustained economic growth.

That has become harder for people here under TPS.

In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could terminate temporary protected status for countries like Haiti and Syria, putting more than 350,000 people from those lands at immediate risk of deportation.

More broadly, the ruling appears to make Department of Homeland Security decisions about TPS unreviewable by lower courts, creating deep uncertainty for the future.

Homeland Security says TPS has officially ended for Haiti and Syria, even though cases involving stays and constitutional issues are technically alive in lower courts. The Supreme Court decision started the process for an implementation order that typically takes 32 days. Once TPS ends for individual countries, holders revert to their previous immigration status, meaning those who have no other protection will be subject to arrest and deportation.

The Trump administration has made a goal of ending TPS, insisting that “temporary” means temporary. It’s unclear if the administration may let TPS designations end on their staggered schedules or attempt to conclude the status for all holders at once.

Work authorizations for Haitians expired on Monday.

They face a forced return to a country crippled by natural disasters, governmental collapse, and ongoing gang violence.

The U.S. government warns Americans not to go to Haiti, issuing its highest “Do Not Travel” advisory. The United Nations estimates that 90% of Port-au-Prince, the capital and largest city, is controlled by criminal gangs, the violence having left thousands dead and displaced more than 1.4 million people.

White House adviser Stephen Miller told reporters after the court ruling that it was safe for Haitians to return, saying it would be “crazy to say that Haitians couldn’t live in Haiti.”

Asked if people who lose TPS would be deported, he answered: “Of course. If you no longer have status in this country, then you’re supposed to be deported.”

CBS News reported last Sunday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is preparing a operation to quickly arrest and deport Haitians — including those in Ohio, where Trump falsely accused migrants in Springfield of eating cats and dogs.

The Haitian Bridge Alliance, a California-based advocacy organization, warns against “one of the largest family separation events in modern-day history,” as TPS-holders live with an estimated 390,000 American-citizen children and 410,000 citizen adults.

Immigrant allies are planning a rally for Haitians in Philadelphia on Thursday.

TPS is a humanitarian status that the U.S. can grant to foreign nationals whose countries are embroiled in war, environmental disasters, epidemics, or other extraordinary circumstances. It provides work authorization and protection from removal, but no path to permanent residency or citizenship.

People with TPS participate in the labor force at a rate of 85%, well above the overall U.S. rate of 63%, according to a new policy briefing from FWD.us, a bipartisan advocate for immigration and criminal justice reform.

About one-third of TPS households own homes and pay mortgages.

Each year, people with TPS pay about $7.8 billion in federal, payroll, state, and local taxes, and contribute $690 million to Social Security, FWD.us said.

Haitian TPS-holders pay close to a billion dollars in taxes annually, according to the American Immigration Council.

They compose a disproportionate share of nursing aides and long-term-care assistants, and any removal is expected to hurt nursing homes and assisted-living facilities that already face a shortage of workers.

“In Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania, businesses will lose workers, the elderly will lose caretakers, and families will be separated,” said Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America’s Voice, a Washington-based advocacy organization.

The pro-business U.S. Chamber of Commerce has urged the Senate to pass legislation that would extend protections for Haiti, in order “to prevent significant disruption to America’s workforce and avoid an unnecessary humanitarian crisis.”

The chamber knows TPS was never intended to be permanent, it wrote in a letter to Senate leadership, but the reality is hundreds of thousands of Haitian nationals have lived and worked lawfully in the U.S., “contributing to communities and filling critical positions throughout the American economy.”

At the same time, widespread violence and governmental dysfunction in Haiti “make safe and orderly large-scale repatriation unrealistic.”

Ukrainians in the U.S. face a similar situation.

Many have nothing to return to ― their homes were destroyed in the war. Or they lived in cities that face constant bombardment, making any return potentially deadly.

The Philadelphia region has been a main resettlement area for people escaping the war, spurred by the vitality of a local Ukrainian community that is tens of thousands strong. Now Ukrainians who fled to the U.S. see their TPS scheduled to end on Oct. 19, and wonder how they will afford food and housing if that happens.

“People are really panicked,” said Iryna Mazur, the honorary consul of Ukraine in Philadelphia.

Ukrainians need both an extension and a redesignation of TPS ― the latter allowing newer arrivals to qualify, she said. Employers are upset, too, worried they are about to lose good, qualified workers, including many employed as mechanics or plumbers’ and electricians’ assistants.

“They are losing their employees, and their businesses will be hurt,” Mazur said. “We need the [Trump] administration to act.”