Quasi-Amnesty to End for 262,500 Salvadorans in U.S. Since Earthquakes

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen declared an end on Monday to a quasi-amnesty program for tens of thousands of foreigners — but delayed its implementation to provide a soft landing.

Department officials said citizens of El Salvador would become the latest group to lose Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which had shielded them from deportation and allowed them to work legally in the United States. The administration will give them until September 2019 to wrap up their affairs and return home — or seek legal immigration status.

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“To allow for an orderly transition, the effective date of the termination of TPS for El Salvador will be delayed 18 months to provide time for individuals with TPS to arrange for their departure or to seek an alternative lawful immigration status in the United States, if eligible,” a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call on Monday.

“Salvadorans in the United States who benefited from TPS may still receive other protections under our immigration system for which they are eligible,” the official said.

The latest decision applies to more than 262,500 people who have been living in this country since 2001, when the government granted them TPS following severe earthquakes in El Salvador. They are part of an estimated 725,000 illegal immigrants now in the U.S. from El Salvador.

Officials said they do not know how many U.S.-born children those beneficiaries have, but the Migration Policy Institute — a Washington think tank that studies international migration trends — has estimated the number to be 193,000.

Immigration hawks have long contended that regular renewals of the status had made a mockery of the word “temporary” in the TPS title. Congress created it to provide short-term relief to people stranded in the United States following a natural disaster or other emergency in their home countries.

President Donald Trump, however, has taken a harder line. Monday’s announcement follows decisions under Nielsen’s immediate predecessor, Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke, to wind down protection for people from Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan. The affected population from El Salvador is by far bigger than any other nationality whose TPS status has been revoked.

“It’s overdue that the administration is ending TPS for El Salvadorans.”

Citizens of El Salvador who have been living with TPS will have an opportunity to convert to another immigration status if they are eligible. Anyone who had entered the country legally and married an American citizen, for instance, will be able to apply for a green card.

The Homeland Security official said anyone who entered unlawfully and married a U.S. citizen, though, will have to return to El Salvador to apply for a green card.

Some immigration advocates claim it is unfair to return Salvadorans to a country where gang violence is widespread. But the administration official said that issue, along with the economic impact on the United States, were not factors.

The official said Nielsen considered only the conditions on the ground in El Salvador, which received millions of dollars in international aid after the earthquakes and rebuilt homes, schools, hospitals, and other buildings.

The official noted that the United States has deported 39,000 people to El Salvador over the past two years, an indication that the Central American country can handle the influx of its citizens. “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 official said.

Organizations that favor tighter immigration controls praised Monday’s decision. NumbersUSA President Roy Beck called it “a major step toward saving the TPS program so it can be used for future emergencies.” Without a commitment to making it a truly temporary response to a crisis, it risked elimination, he said in a statement.

[lz_table title=”Ending TPS” source=”Department of Homeland Security”]Citizens of several countries will lose Temporary Protected Status
|Country,Number,Termination
Sudan,300-500,Nov. 2018
Nicaragua, 5.3K,Jan. 2019
Haiti,60K,July 2019
El Salvador,262.5K,Sept. 2019
[/lz_table]

“If TPS cannot be operated according to its original intent and design, the program should be eliminated completely,” he stated. “Sec. Nielsen’s decision suggests it may be possible to justify continuation of the program.”

Arthur “Art” Arthur, resident fellow in law and policy at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Immigration Studies, praised the decision. “It’s overdue that the administration is ending TPS for El Salvadorans,” he told LifeZette.

Related: Homeland Security Ends Temporary Deportation Protection for 60,000 Haitians

The administration official said that if Salvadorans with expired TPS protection do not go home, they will be treated like other illegal immigrants. He said enforcement priorities remain criminals, people with final orders, and others who pose a threat to public safety or national security.

“However, DHS will not exempt entire categories or classes of people from potential immigration enforcement actions,” he said.

Arthur said the “odds are not terribly high” that most beneficiaries will return home once their status expires. But he said after earning money in the United States for nearly two decades, most probably would be well-suited to live comfortably in lower-cost El Salvador.

Arthur also predicted that TPS beneficiaries would gain allies in Congress — people already working to provide permanent legal status to participants in the expiring Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program created to protect illegal immigrants who came to America as children.

“There’s going to be pressure to put these folks in with the DACA,” he said.

PoliZette senior writer Brendan Kirby can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.