200,000 Salvadorans may be forced to leave the U.S. as Trump ends immigration protection

Demonstrators march Dec. 6 in Washington during a rally in support of the Deferred Action for the
Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protected Status programs. (Jose Luis Magana/AP)

The Trump administration has canceled the provisional residency permits of about 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the country since at least 2001, leaving them vulnerable to deportation, according a copy of a Department of Homeland Security announcement sent to lawmakers Monday.


The administration will notify the Salvadorans they have until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave the United States or find a new way to obtain legal residency.

The Salvadorans were granted what is known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, after a series of earthquakes devastated the country in 2001.

According to the DHS statement sent to lawmakers, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen determined that conditions in El Salvador have improved significantly since then, ending the original justification for the Salvadorans’ deportation protection.

“Only Congress can legislate a permanent solution addressing the lack of an enduring lawful immigration status of those currently protected by TPS who have lived and worked in the United States for many years,” the announcement states. “The 18-month delayed termination will allow Congress time to craft a potential legislative solution.”

Monday’s decision was not a surprise, and is part of the White House’s broader goal of reducing legal immigration to the United States and intensifying efforts to expel those who arrived illegally.

The El Salvador TPS decision was the most momentous for the administration to make, because of the sheer number of people affected. The 200,000 are the parents of an estimated 190,000 U.S.-born children, according to recent studies, and about one-third are homeowners.

But Trump officials have consistently signaled that they viewed the TPS program as an example of American immigration policy gone awry, noting that when Congress created the TPS designation in 1990 its purpose was to provide “temporary” protection from deportation.

In November, DHS ended TPS for 60,000 Haitians who arrived after a 2010 earthquake, and for 2,500 Nicaraguan migrants protected after Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

A six-month extension was recently granted to 57,000 Hondurans, a decision made prior to Nielsen’s arrival by then-Acting DHS Secretary Elaine Duke. That moved frustrated White House officials who wanted Duke to end the program.

“The fix has been in for these TPS decisions, regardless of the facts on the ground in these countries,” said Kevin Appleby of the New York-based Center for Migration Studies.

“The decision on El Salvador is particularly damaging,” he said. “It not only will uproot families and children who have lived here for years, it also will further destabilize an already violent country. It is incredibly short-sighted and undermines our interest in a stable Central America.”

There were new signs Monday that TPS could end up as a bargaining chip in a potential congressional immigration deal. A source familiar with the negotiations said Congress could step in to help the Salvadorans, Haitians and other groups whose temporary protected status is now set to expire in 2019.

Democrats and Republicans have been privately discussing the possibility of ending the diversity visa lottery program — which grants about 55,000 green cards each year to immigrants from nations with low immigration rates to the United States — in exchange for extending TPS protections as part of the talks over the fate of younger immigrants known as “dreamers” who were brought to the country illegally as children.

Trump has railed against the diversity program, saying any deal to provide legal status to the dreamers must get rid of it.

Immigrant advocate groups had implored Nielsen to extend TPS for the Salvadorans, noting that the country is one of the world’s most violent. Money sent there by Salvadorans working in the United States is a pillar of the country’s economy.

DHS said in its announcement that it conducted extensive outreach to Salvadorans living in the United States, including “community forums on TPS, panel discussions with Salvadoran community organizers, stakeholder teleconferences, regular meetings with TPS beneficiaries, news releases to the Salvadoran community, meetings with Salvadoran government officials, meetings at local churches, and listening sessions.”

Secretary Nielsen met recently with the El Salvador’s Foreign Minister and Ambassador to the United States, and spoke with President Sánchez Cerén, according to the announcement sent to lawmakers.

Jaime Contreras, vice president of Local 32BJ, the largest property service local in the Service Employees International Union, called Monday’s decision “shameful.” In the Washington D.C., area, he said, TPS recipients clean Ronald Reagan National Airport, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and “every major landmark you can think of.”

“They have families here. A lot of these people own homes,” said Contreras, whose union represents about 160,000 commercial office cleaners, security officers and others nationwide. “It’s time for Congress to do the right thing.”

Fuente: The Washington Post

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