The Briefing:
- Employment Authorization Documents carrying A12 or C19 category codes with an October 2, 2026, expiration date are now void for I-9 purposes — regardless of what they look like on file.
- This final protected group — roughly 5,000 workers who received their documents on or before February 5, 2025 — was the only subset of Venezuelan TPS holders to survive every court ruling and executive action since early 2025.
- Employers must immediately audit Form I-9 records and, where no alternative authorization exists, suspend or cease employment for affected workers.
- On October 5, 2026, the Supreme Court vacated the Ninth Circuit ruling that had found the TPS terminations unlawful and remanded the case for reconsideration — but that order does not extend or restore the carve-out that expired October 2.
USCIS issued a fresh alert this week on its official TPS tracking page, targeting Venezuelan nationals currently holding status. The update reads:
ALERT: After reviewing country conditions and consulting with the appropriate U.S. government agencies, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem determined that Venezuela no longer met the conditions for its 2023 designation for Temporary Protected Status (TPS). See Termination of the Oct. 3, 2023, Designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status, 90 Fed. Reg. 9040 (Feb. 5, 2025). On Oct. 3, 2025, the Supreme Court allowed the termination to take immediate effect. Separately, former Secretary Noem published her notice to terminate the Venezuela 2021 designation, effective Nov. 7, 2025. See Termination of the 2021 Designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status, 90 Fed. Reg. 43225 (Sept. 8, 2025).
TPS beneficiaries who received TPS-related employment authorization documents (EADs), Forms I-797, Notices of Action, and Forms I-94 issued with Oct. 2, 2026, expiration dates on or before Feb. 5, 2025, maintained work authorization and their documentation remained valid until Oct. 2, 2026, pursuant to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California's order dated May 30, 2025. The documentation for this subset of TPS beneficiaries is no longer valid.
Employment cards that outlasted two Supreme Court orders, a Biden administration extension, and a Noem termination notice have now hit their legal endpoint. As of October 2, 2026, the last group of Venezuelan Temporary Protected Status holders to retain any work authorization lost that protection — and every employer who has not already acted is now operating outside federal immigration law.
This is not a policy overview. It is an active I-9 compliance emergency, with worksite enforcement on the rise and federal penalties waiting for employers who knowingly continue paying workers whose authorization has expired.
Two Terminations, Hundreds of Thousands of Workers Gone
The Venezuelan TPS collapse unfolded in stages across eighteen months. On January 17, 2025, then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas published a Federal Register notice extending Venezuela's 2023 TPS designation through October 2, 2026, covering approximately 607,000 beneficiaries. Within days, incoming DHS Secretary Kristi Noem reversed that decision. Her February 5, 2025 Federal Register notice terminated the 2023 designation and reverted most EADs tied to it to their prior expiration dates.
A federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked the termination — but the Supreme Court stepped in twice. On May 19, 2025, the justices granted the government's emergency request in a brief, unsigned order, clearing the way for DHS to enforce the termination while an appeal advanced through the Ninth Circuit. Then, on October 3, 2025, the court again ruled for the government — this time staying a final district court order that had fully restored TPS through October 2026 for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans. The three liberal justices dissented from that second order. Five weeks later, on November 7, 2025, the separate 2021 designation expired, cutting off roughly 250,000 additional workers from legal status in a single day.
By the close of 2025, the Venezuelan TPS program was effectively over — for most holders.
The 5,000 Who Survived Every Ruling — Until This Month
One narrow exception held for another year. USCIS confirmed that TPS holders who had received EADs, Forms I-797, Notices of Action, and Forms I-94 with October 2, 2026, expiration dates on or before February 5, 2025, would retain valid work authorization through that date — sustained by a May 30, 2025, order from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. That carve-out covered workers who had re-registered under the 2023 designation before Secretary Noem's termination and whose documentation was processed in time.
Their documents carried A12 or C19 category codes. On October 1, 2026, those cards appeared valid. As of October 3, they were not.
A Supreme Court Order Three Days Later — and What It Does Not Change
Three days after the October 2 expiration, the Supreme Court moved on the broader litigation. On October 5, 2026, the justices vacated the Ninth Circuit's January 2026 ruling — which had found the Trump administration's TPS terminations unlawful — and sent the case back to the appeals court for reconsideration in light of the court's June 2026 precedent in Mullin v. Doe, a ruling that significantly restricts judicial review of executive TPS decisions. The National TPS Alliance is now arguing before the Ninth Circuit that the new legal standard still leaves room to challenge how the administration handled the termination — and that lifting the existing stay could temporarily restore TPS protections for the broader affected population while the appeal is reheard.
What the October 5 order does not do is extend or restore the protection that expired October 2. The 5,000-person carve-out was tied to a fixed date printed on the face of those EADs. No court order currently shields those workers.
Why USCIS Is Flagging This Now: An I-9 Trigger, Not a Policy Update
The guidance USCIS published on I-9 Central this month is aimed at employers, not workers. Under federal law, businesses with actual knowledge that an employee's authorization has expired cannot lawfully continue that person's employment. The A12 and C19 EADs reading "Card Expires: 10/02/2026" are no longer valid for Form I-9 verification, even if the physical card has not been returned or flagged. An employer whose records still show those documents as active faces constructive knowledge of the expiration — a legal exposure that does not require a federal agent at the door to trigger.
Immigration compliance attorneys recommend a two-step response: first, pull Form I-9 files for any employee whose only authorization was a Venezuelan TPS EAD carrying that expiration code; second, require those employees to present alternative valid documentation immediately or, absent that, suspend their employment or place them on unpaid leave while legal options are weighed. ICE worksite enforcement activity has intensified in industries known to employ Venezuelan nationals — warehousing, food processing, construction, and hospitality — making this a high-exposure period for any business that has not yet completed its I-9 review.
What Affected Workers Can Still Do
For workers holding an expired October 2 EAD, not every path is closed. Venezuelan nationals may qualify for alternative authorization through pending family-based visa petitions, employer sponsorship applications, asylum claims, or humanitarian parole — all of which operate independently of TPS and can be presented as substitute Form I-9 evidence. Any worker holding a qualifying document should bring it forward to their employer without delay.
Litigation brought by the National TPS Alliance remains active, with the Ninth Circuit now tasked with reconsidering whether the TPS terminations were lawful under the Mullin v. Doe standard. No court order currently restores status for this final group. Immigration attorneys are urging anyone holding an expired October 2 EAD to seek legal counsel within days, not weeks, given how rapidly enforcement activity is advancing.
USCIS has issued no administrative reprieve for this cohort. October 2, 2026, was not a soft deadline with extensions held in reserve — it was the fixed endpoint of a court-ordered carve-out that no active judicial protection currently replaces. That date is now three weeks in the past.
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