Week ending September 11, 2026
This week brought an unexpected reprieve for Salvadoran TPS holders, a potentially major change for employment-based nonimmigrants, and an important appellate ruling limiting the government’s use of confidential taxpayer information for immigration enforcement.
Salvadoran TPS remains valid after DHS misses the September 9 deadline. DHS had been expected to announce whether it would extend or terminate Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador before its September 9 expiration. Instead, the deadline passed without a formal decision. DHS subsequently confirmed that Salvadorans covered by TPS remain protected for now and said an announcement will be made “at the appropriate time.” Approximately 170,000–200,000 people may be affected.
DHS proposes eliminating the 60-day grace period after employment ends for H-1B and several other work-visa categories. On September 10, DHS proposed eliminating the regulatory grace period that currently permits certain nonimmigrants to remain in the United States for up to 60 days after their employment ends. The proposal reaches not only H-1B workers but also people in E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 and TN status.
Federal appeals court says IRS unlawfully shared taxpayers’ addresses with ICE. On September 8, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upheld an injunction blocking an IRS program that provided taxpayer address information to ICE. Under the program, ICE sought last-known addresses for as many as 1.28 million people, and the IRS ultimately disclosed approximately 47,000 taxpayer addresses before the policy was blocked. The court concluded that the government’s procedures violated federal taxpayer-confidentiality law.
Immigrant-visa processing resumes in Hungary and Poland while broader processing disruptions continue elsewhere. The State Department has resumed immigrant-visa processing in Hungary and Poland even as broader immigrant-visa interview disruptions continue at other posts following implementation of new public-charge procedures and officer training. The selective resumption follows last month’s federal-court decision striking down the administration’s nationality-based 75-country immigrant-visa suspension.
State Department rolls out a new immigrant-visa scheduling tool. DOS has introduced an online Immigrant Visa Scheduling Status Tool showing approximately how far each consular post has progressed in scheduling documentarily complete cases. The tool separates immediate-relative, family-preference, and employment-based cases and is updated monthly.
Third-country deportations again raise serious protection concerns. Reuters reported this week that people removed by the United States to Equatorial Guinea despite being nationals of other countries encountered armed police and potentially coercive conditions after arrival. Thirty-one deportees were reportedly being held at a hotel in Malabo. The episode is part of the administration’s expanding use of third-country removal arrangements.
The Alien Terrorist Removal Court is used for the first time in its 30-year history. On September 11, the government announced the removal of an Afghan lawful permanent resident through proceedings before the Alien Terrorist Removal Court, a special federal court Congress created in 1996 but which had apparently never previously been used. The government alleged that the woman assisted in concealing an ISIS-inspired election-day attack plot; she was not criminally charged and ultimately agreed to removal and to the statutory designation used in the proceeding.
