The bottom line. Roughly 170,000 Salvadorans are still legally in the United States after the Trump administration chose not to end their Temporary Protected Status this week — though officials have given no word on whether the designation will be renewed.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said an announcement regarding TPS for El Salvador will come "at the appropriate time." The department has already scrapped the program for citizens of several other nations, among them Haiti and Syria, but took no such step for El Salvador this week.
Because no action was taken, Salvadoran recipients keep both their legal status and their work permits. What happens to them over the longer term, however, is still up in the air. About 170,000 immigrants from El Salvador fall under the designation.
What TPS Is and How Salvadorans Got It
Lawmakers established TPS in 1990 so that eligible migrants whose home countries are too dangerous to return to — whether because of armed conflict or natural disasters — could live and work in the U.S. lawfully. El Salvador was granted the designation in 2001, following devastating earthquakes there.
The immigrant advocacy group fwd.us reports that Salvadoran TPS holders number more than 150,000 and add an estimated $5.4 billion to the U.S. economy annually through their work, while paying roughly $1.5 billion in federal and state taxes. They have also welcomed about 150,000 American children over the past quarter-century.
Legal Options Remain Limited
TPS on its own offers no route to citizenship. Daysi Gonzalez, 31, who came to the U.S. at six years old and holds TPS, said her attempts to adjust status by other routes have all failed. She told NPR that there are very limited legal options to adjust your status and there is no pathway to citizenship for TPS.
Gonzalez now works as a partner at the political consulting firm where she once interned, and she has been sharing her uncertainty on social media. In an Instagram post, she said she feels numb and that the physical and emotional damage of the last month is so frustrating that it feels like they suffered that all for nothing.
Congress and the Courts
President Trump has terminated TPS for more than 10 countries during his second term, and in June the Supreme Court decided that the president's authority to shut down the program is essentially without limits. Attention now turns to Congress, where the National TPS Alliance is lobbying for a bill creating a pathway to permanent residency. Jose Palma, a TPS recipient and the organization's national coordinator, said such a measure is a single Republican vote short of making it to the House floor.
A shorter-term fix is being promoted by the National Salvadoran American Association: an 18-month extension of TPS. According to chairman Francisco Semiao, the point is to let people sell their homes and businesses and make other preparations, instead of being forced out within 60 days or six months.
What This Means Right Now
While the designation stands, Salvadoran TPS holders generally keep their legal status and work authorization — but DHS has made no promise of an extension.
Since TPS creates no path to citizenship, recipients affected by its possible end usually have few other ways to adjust their status.
Two legislative ideas in Congress — permanent residency and an 18-month extension — are still pending, with unclear odds.
Should the designation be terminated in the end, families could be left with only a narrow window to get their affairs in order, a worry advocates cite in arguing for more time.
This article was originally published by NPR.