The Trump administration will end Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans on September 9, 2019, according to the Washington Post. The decision to end the program had been long-anticipated by advocates after the installation of the new Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nelsen. Nelsen’s predecessor Elaine Duke had refused to end TPS for Hondurans in November, as requested by John Kelly, Trump’s Chief of Staff. Kelly has been notorious for his anti-immigrant views and Secretary Nelsen was his protégé and was expected to follow his directives.
The announced end of Salvadoran TPS will throw the lives of 200,000 Salvadorans who have lived in the United States for at least 17 years into crisis. The Department of Homeland Security says that these people should begin preparations to return to El Salvador, one of the least safe countries in the world.
We will not know all the details of the end of TPS for El Salvador until an official Federal Register announcement is made. Normally, the Federal Register announcement is published within 24 hours of the press announcement. However, when Honduran TPS was extended in November, the official announcement did not come out until six weeks later.
Here is what we should expect concerning the final re-registration period for TPS:
- There will be an automatic extension of work authorizations for six months.
- Salvadorans who already have TPS must renew their permits during a 60-day renewal period. At the time of this writing, that renewal period has not yet been announced. Do not send in renewals before the official announcement.
Those Salvadorans who have TPS should definitely file for renewal. Failing to renew will leave them exposed to loss of employment authorization and even deportation.
CARECEN is offering free meetings to explain this sorry news for Salvadorans who have TPS. The first meeting is on January 17 at 5:15pm at CARECEN’s Hempstead office at 91 N. Franklin St. Suite 208, Hempstead.
Call CARECEN at 516-489-8330 or 631-273-8721 for more information.
