Roughly 170,000 immigrants from El Salvador covered by Temporary Protected Status can still legally work and live in the U.S. – for now.
The Trump administration declined this week to terminate TPS for Salvadorans, even though it has done so for people from other countries like Haiti and Syria. But it also hasn't said whether it will extend the protection in the future.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said it will make an announcement on Salvadoran TPS, "at the appropriate time."
The lack of action means that TPS recipients still have legal status, but their lives remain in limbo.
'I feel numb'
"I feel numb … the physical and emotional damage of the last month, it's so frustrating that it feels like we suffered that all for nothing," TPS recipient Daysi Gonzalez said in an Instagram post.
Gonzalez has been chronicling on social media what it has been like to live under the weight of uncertainty.
Gonzalez, who is now 31, arrived in the U.S. with her parents and older sister when she was six years old. They were visiting family in California and she was promised a trip to Disneyland. But a month and a day into their six month tourist visa, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake devastated El Salvador, and TPS was extended to Salvadorans who were in the country at that time.
She's never been back to El Salvador. She's now a partner at the political consulting firm where she started off as an intern. She and her older sister own a home together. Those accomplishments have turned into a painful checklist of things she has to figure out how to dismantle, if her TPS is ultimately revoked and she has to leave the country.
"I've tried to adjust status in different ways, but there are very limited legal options to adjust your status and there is no pathway to citizenship for TPS," she told NPR.
The start of TPS
Congress created TPS in 1990 to allow eligible migrants to live and work legally in the U.S. if they can't return safely to their home countries because of things like natural disasters and armed conflicts.
It was granted to Salvadorans in 2001, after earthquakes devastated the country. Since then, more than 150,000 Salvadoran TPS holders contribute an estimated $5.4 billion to the U.S. economy each year as part of the work force, paying about $1.5 billion in federal and state taxes, according to immigrant advocacy group fwd.us. And over the last 25 years, they've given birth to approximately 150,000 American children.
A legislative solution
In his second term, Trump has ended TPS for more than 10 countries. And in June, the Supreme Court ruled the president has virtually unrestrained power to end the program.
Groups like the National TPS Alliance are advocating for Congress to step in.
"There are legislations in Congress that would provide a pathway for permanent residency," said Jose Palma, a TPS recipient and the national coordinator for the National TPS Alliance.
Palma said one of those bills is one Republican vote away from reaching the House floor.
The National Salvadoran American Association is trying to convince Republicans to pass a more short term solution that would extend TPS for another 18 months.
"Let's not think about this as solving an immigration issue as make this like the next humanitarian extension for people that just can't all of a sudden be told, you can't be here anymore and you only have 60 days or 6 months to leave," said Francisco Semiao, chairman of the association. "But people need more time than that if they need to sell their homes, sell their businesses, other arrangements."
That would at least give Salvadoran families more time to make plans on how to proceed.
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