The Trump administration has taken another action against the immigrants by canceling the interim residency permits of about 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the country since at least 2001. This measure would make them even more exposed to deportation, according to a copy of a Department of Homeland Security declaration sent to lawmakers on Monday.
The administration will notify the Salvadorans they have until September 9, 2019, to leave the United States or find a new way to obtain legal residency in the country.
The Salvadorans were granted an interim residency permit what is known as Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, after a series of earthquakes took place and 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 which the Salvadorans were protected from deportation.
“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.”
Keeping in view the current decision made by Trump’s administration, Monday’s verdict was not a surprise to many people. It is considered to be a part of the White House’s broader goal of reducing legal immigration to the United States and escalating efforts to banish those who arrived illegally.
Back then, the El Salvador TPS decision was one of the most historic decisions that the government made because of the total 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 have their own homes. But under Trump’s rule, the White House representatives have constantly shown that they viewed the TPS program as an example of American immigration policy gone skewed and when Congress created the TPS designation in 1990 its purpose was to provide “temporary” protection from deportation, not a permanent residence.
According to 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.”
The government has given Salvadorans in the TPS until September 2019 to get all their affairs in order, after which they will no longer be able to stay in the United States. This has put all those 200,000 people in absolute distress as they are forced to leave the country in fear of what will happen of their children’s future.
