As TPS Cliff Nears, Salvadorans in the US Put Lives on Hold

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Across the country, other Salvadorans are making their own calculations as the deadline approaches. Some are exploring whether they could start over elsewhere. Others are rushing to consult immigration attorneys and sign guardianship agreements that determine who would care for their children if they are detained or deported.

In a Aug. 12 update, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notified Salvadorans that their work authorization and protection from deportation are set to expire Sept. 9. But the law requires the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security to decide whether to extend or terminate TPS at least 60 days before a designation expires. If no determination is made, the protections automatically extend for six months.

For the termination to take effect Sept. 9, the administration would have had to publish a notice in the Federal Register in July. It did not — leaving roughly 170,000 Salvadorans waiting for official word.

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In July, 80 Democratic members of Congress urged DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin to extend TPS rather than send Salvadorans back to “a country beset by documented state-sponsored human rights abuses which does not have the means or capacity to support a diaspora of tens of thousands of people.” This month, more than 270 faith leaders and organizations issued a similar appeal.

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“It feels like we’re just waiting for the Grim Reaper to knock on our door,” said César Linares, 45, a Salvadoran TPS holder and construction worker in Washington, DC.

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El Salvador became the first country to receive the protection as its brutal civil war neared its end, though that initial designation expired in 1992. The country received TPS again in 2001, under President George W. Bush, after two devastating earthquakes killed more than 1,000 people.

That designation has remained in place for 25 years — long enough for recipients to raise families, build businesses and become embedded in their communities, but without providing a path for permanent residency or citizenship.

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Last year, a multimillion-dollar agreement between the Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele sent hundreds of migrants from U.S. detention to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT — a move that cemented Bukele’s role as one of Trump’s closest allies in the region and made El Salvador a willing partner in the president’s immigration agenda.

Bukele, who once described himself as the “world’s coolest dictator,” has built his international profile around his crackdown on gangs and the dramatic decline in violence that followed. Homicides fell to historic lows, but tens of thousands of people were imprisoned, often without due process, amid allegations of torture, arbitrary detention and other human rights abuses.

That alliance has become an unpredictable variable in the future of TPS, Ruiz Soto said.

“It’s a lot easier to terminate TPS for a country which the administration in power has little or no relationship with – say Venezuela or Haiti – than it is to terminate TPS for a country that is a close ally,” he said. “The political dynamics are very sensitive and go beyond policy.”

The decision could pull Bukele in opposite directions, Ruiz Soto said. Supporting an end to TPS would mean accepting the possible return of thousands of Salvadorans after years of promoting the country as safe and prosperous. But asking Trump for an extension could require acknowledging that El Salvador may not be prepared to receive them.

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