US TPS lift targets Syrian migrants; Syrian flag raised on DC embassy
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Under Trump’s policy shift, the US will end Temporary Protected Status for 6,000 Syrians, giving them 60 days to leave or face deportation.
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DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin speaks during a news conference at ICE Headquarters in Washington, Wednesday, May 21, 2025 (AP)
The US will terminate deportation protections for Syrian migrants, the Department of Homeland Security said on Friday, as part of President Donald Trump's broad effort to strip legal status from migrants.
According to a Federal Register notice posted on Friday, the action will terminate Temporary Protected Status for more than 6,000 Syrians who have had access to the legal status since 2012.
"Conditions in Syria no longer prevent their nationals from returning home. Syria has been a hotbed of terrorism and extremism for nearly two decades, and it is contrary to our national interest to allow Syrians to remain in our country," Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated.
The statement said Syrian nationals currently living in the US have 60 days to voluntarily depart the country and return home, adding that any Syrian national admitted under temporary protected status who is still in the US after that time could be subject to arrest and deportation.
This comes as part of Donald Trump's wider efforts to strip protected status from migrants of different nationalities, in a bid to speed up his deportations and ramp up his anti-immigrant action.
Trump cracks down on TPS
A federal appeals court ruled on August 21 in favor of the Trump administration, temporarily overturning a lower court decision that had preserved Temporary Protected Status for 60,000 migrants from Central America and Nepal.
The decision enables the government to begin removal proceedings for approximately 7,000 Nepalese migrants whose TPS expired on 5 August, and the status of 51,000 Hondurans and 3,000 Nicaraguans is scheduled to lapse on September 8, after which they too will be subject to deportation.
TPS is a designation granted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), allowing migrants to remain in the United States and work legally if returning to their home country would be unsafe due to conflict, disaster, or political instability. The Trump administration has sought to roll back these protections as part of its broader immigration enforcement strategy.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has the authority to extend or terminate TPS designations based on conditions in migrants’ countries of origin.
Advocates stress that many of the affected migrants have built their lives in the US over decades. TPS holders from Nepal have been in the country for more than ten years, while Hondurans and Nicaraguans first received protection in 1998 following Hurricane Mitch.
Syrian flag above Embassy in Washington in first in over decade
While the US is going after Syrian migrants under the TPW status, it is taking a different approach at the diplomatic level.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani on Friday raised the flag above the Syrian Embassy in Washington, D.C., for the first time in more than a decade.
For the first time in over a DECADE, Syrian flag flies at Washington embassy
— RT (@RT_com) September 19, 2025
FM Asaad Hassan al-Shaibani personally performs the ceremony
First visit by top Syrian diplomat to DC in 25 years pic.twitter.com/8FItzHzcZG
The ceremony drew Syrian-Americans who described the “historic” day for the Syrian people and the beginning of a new chapter in ties, nine months after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
It also comes days before Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is scheduled to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly, which will mark the first visit to the US in 58 years by a Syrian president.
“Of course, it is a historical moment,” al-Shaibani told Anadolu after the flag-raising ceremony, adding that it represents the Syrian people’s struggle during the 14 years of war.
Al-Shaibani met with several lawmakers and senior officials, including US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack. Talks at the State Department covered the future of Syria, "Israel"-Syria relations, and the March 10 agreement between Damascus and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to the US.
That agreement, announced by the Syrian presidency earlier this year, outlined plans to integrate the SDF into state institutions, stressing the country’s territorial integrity and rejecting any separatist agenda.
Al-Shaibani arrived in Washington on Thursday, marking the first visit by a Syrian foreign minister to the US in more than 25 years.
