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Update on Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti and Related Countries

Client Alert

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued an important update on July 10, 2026, regarding Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) beneficiaries from Haiti and several other countries.

Current Status:

  • Haiti: TPS designation and related benefits remain in effect pursuant to a District Court order, until July 24, 2026. EAD documents, otherwise known as work authorization, for categories A12 or C19 with prior expiration dates are automatically extended through July 24, 2026.
  • Haitian natives with EAD documents issued in a different category should consult with an immigration attorney.
  • Other Countries (Burma/Myanmar, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Ethiopia, and South Sudan): EADs are extended through July 17, 2026.

These are short-term administrative extensions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 25, 2026 decision in Mullin v. Doe. The situation remains confusing, and new court decisions continue to try to limit the TPS termination. USCIS has indicated that TPS beneficiaries will keep their status and work authorization during this period, but further changes are likely.

Employers and TPS beneficiaries should check EAD expiration dates and categories and continue monitoring the official USCIS SAVE page and the specific pages for other countries for the latest developments. Employers should accept the extended EADs for Form I-9 and E-Verify purposes.

We are closely following this matter and will provide further updates as new information becomes available.

TPS recipients may have other immigration benefit options. Anyone losing TPS should consult with an immigration attorney immediately.

If you have questions about how these developments may affect your business or immigration status, contact BMD Member Rob Ratliff at raratliff@bmdllc.com.


2021 EEOC Charge Statistics: Retaliation & Impact of Remote Work

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released its detailed information on workplace discrimination charges it received in 2021. Unsurprisingly, for the second year in a row, the total number of charges decreased as COVID-19 either shut down workplaces or disconnected employees from each other. In 2021, the agency received a total of approximately 61,000 workplace discrimination charges - the fewest in 25 years by a wide margin. For reference, the agency received over 67,000 charges in 2020, and averaged almost 90,000 charges per year over the previous 10 years.

Ohio’s Managed Care Overhaul Delayed – New Implementation Timeline

At the direction of Governor Mike DeWine, the Ohio Department of Medicaid (ODM) launched the Medicaid Managed Care Procurement process in 2019. ODM’s stated vision for the procurement was to focus on people and not just the business of managed care. This is the first structural change to Ohio’s managed care system since the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) approval of Ohio’s Medicaid program in 2005. Initially, all of the new managed care programs were supposed to be implemented starting on July 1, 2022. However, ODM Director Maureen Corcoran recently confirmed that this date will be pushed back for several managed care-related programs.

Laboratory Specimen Collection Arrangements with Contract Hospitals - OIG Advisory Opinion 22-09

On April 28, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) published an Advisory Opinion[1] in which it evaluated a proposed arrangement where a network of clinical laboratories (the “Requestor”) would compensate hospitals (each a “Contract Hospital”) for specimen collection, processing, and handling services (“Collection Services”) for laboratory tests furnished by the Requestor (the “Proposed Arrangement”). The OIG concluded that the Proposed Arrangement would generate prohibited remuneration under the federal Anti-Kickback Statute (“AKS”) if the requisite intent were present. This is due to both the possibility that the proposed per-patient-encounter fee would be used to induce or reward referrals to Requestor and the associated risk of improperly steering patients to Requestor.

Property Owner Protection from Tax Valuation Challenges

New legislation provides significant new protections for commercial property owners against challenges to valuation primarily by local school boards and prohibiting side agreements to avoid tax valuation changes. The Ohio Legislature has approved House Bill 126 which will go into effect July 2022 but will effectively apply to the 2023 tax valuation year.

No Surprises Act Update: The IDR Portal is Open

The No Surprises Act (“NSA”) became effective January 1, 2022, and has been the subject of lawsuits and criticisms since its inception. The goals of the No Surprises Act are to shield patients from surprise medical bills, provide to uninsured and self-pay patients good faith estimates of charges, and create a process to resolve payment disputes over surprise bills, which arise most typically in emergency care settings. We have written about Part I and Part II of the NSA previously. This update concerns the Independent Dispute Resolution (“IDR”) procedure created by Part II but applicable to claims covered by Part I. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) finally opened the Portal for providers to submit disputes to the IDR process following some updated guidance regarding the arbitration process itself.