Some 0.20 million (200,000) Salvadoran immigrants allowed to live and work in the United States since 2001 will lose their right to remain in the country in 2019, officials said on Monday, marking the Trump administration’s latest move to tighten immigration enforcement.
The United States will end the Salvadorans’ temporary protected status (TPS) on Sept. 9, 2019, giving them 18 months to leave or seek lawful residency, and for El Salvador to prepare for their return, administration officials said. The status was granted in the wake of two devastating 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador that left hundreds of thousands in the country homeless.
The decision to end TPS for Salvadorans is part of the administration’s broader push to tighten immigration laws and expel those living in the United States illegally. The move was heavily criticised by immigrant advocates who said it ignored violence in El Salvador and gave the Salvadorans few options but to leave the United States or remain illegally, reports Reuters
The Trump administration has faced a series of deadlines over the past year to decide whether to end the protected status of immigrants in the United States whose home countries have been affected by disasters.
Salvadorans are by far the largest group under TPS, a programme administration officials said is supposed to provide a temporary haven for victims, not a permanent right to remain in the United States.
Critics have complained TPS has allowed participants to repeatedly extend their stays in 6-month to 18-month increments.
Patricia Hernandez, 53, arrived in the United States in 2000 and applied for TPS after the 2001 earthquakes. She has lived in North Carolina for 18 years and runs a subcontracting construction business with her Honduran husband. The couple have two US-born teenage sons.
“This is a real blow for everyone,” said Hernandez by telephone. “Most of us pay taxes, we’re not living off the government, we’re not criminals.”
The family will move to Honduras with their children and the couple do not intend to return north, she said, though they worry about violence and political instability in central America.
Trump administration changes to the TPS programme mean that over the next two years approximately 02.50 million (250,000) people who previously had permission to live and work in the United States will be subject to deportation if they remain.
Haitians and Nicaraguans will lose their protected status in 2019 and Hondurans, the second largest group in the programme, could lose their rights later this year.
“The past practice of allowing foreign nationals to remain in the United States long after an initial emergency in their home countries has ended has undermined the integrity of the program and essentially made the ‘temporary’ protected status a front operation for backdoor permanent immigration,” said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, which favours less immigration overall.
