“There’s no clear guidance. There’s just confusion and misinformation online that’s getting people’s hopes up,” said one program beneficiary
Despite the Trump administration claiming that the roughly 170,000 Salvadoran immigrants who hold Temporary Protected Status (TPS) “retain protection including work authorization” following its Sept. 9 expiration date, federal officials failed to follow the law by not publishing an official notice regarding the future of the designation, advocates said.
ACROSS INDUSTRIES, GOVERNMENT-CREATED UNCERTAINTY LEADS TO WORKPLACE AND ECONOMIC CHAOS
The entirely predictable end result: thousands of long-settled community members – some of whom have contributed here for more than two decades – left in legal limbo and employers in a state of uncertainty, forcing some restaurants, hospitals and construction businesses to go ahead with laying off their essential workers, The Washington Post reported.
“At the Pentagon and military bases in the D.C. region — including Marine Corps Base Quantico, Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling and the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division — contractors told Salvadoran groundskeepers, housekeepers and janitors with TPS not to show up for work Thursday, said Sonia Vasquez Luna, a representative at LIUNA Local 572, a union that represents public employees and service contract members. Some were fired, only to have their terminations overturned.”
“Salvadoran workers who clean Kaiser Permanente medical facilities were placed on leave Wednesday, Vasquez Luna said,” The Washington Post continued. “The contracted employees’ work permits have been extended, and they will return to work Friday, a Kaiser Permanente spokesperson said.” Gloria, a housekeeper in Alexandria, Virginia, was not so fortunate. Her boss told her last day was Wednesday, the report said.
RELENTLESS ATTACK ON SALVADORAN WORKERS LATEST TACTIC TO STRIP LEGAL STATUS AS PART OF MASS DEPORTATION CAMPAIGN
This chaos and uncertainty for both essential workers and their employers is a direct result of the administration’s years-long effort to end these life-saving humanitarian protections, which have allowed approximately 1.3 million immigrants to live and work here legally. But in late June, the Supreme Court green-lit the administration’s effort to delegalize an estimated 350,000 Haitian and 6,000 Syrian immigrants despite conditions in their home countries not improving.
Clearly emboldened by the court’s unjust ruling, the administration allowed the Sept. 9 expiration date to come and go without “either formally renewing or axing” protections for Salvadoran TPS holders, as Mother Jones reported. “Instead, the program’s website now says that an ‘announcement on El Salvador’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time.’” But as the American Immigration Council also noted, officials “could terminate this protection at any moment.”
In a statement, Alianza Americas called on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin “to comply with the law and publish an official decision that provides clarity to affected communities.”
“To date, the administration has not issued a formal announcement or official communication through the Department of Homeland Security or any other official channel about the future of TPS for El Salvador,” the organization said Sept. 9. “In the absence of an official decision, thousands of families remain without the clear, complete, and timely information they need to make decisions about their jobs, their families, and their future.”
THIS IS AN AMERICAN ISSUE – SALVADORAN IMMIGRANTS ARE PARENTS OF U.S. CITIZENS AND CONTRIBUTE BILLIONS
But this isn’t just an immigration issue, it’s an American issue. Some Salvadoran TPS holders have lived and worked here for as long as 25 years, and an estimated 150,000 U.S. citizen children call at least one Salvadoran TPS holder their parent. “Salvadoran TPS holders contribute an estimated $5.4 billion to the U.S. economy each year,” said FWD.us, “and annually pay $1.5 billion in combined federal, state, and local taxes.” In the Washington, D.C. region alone – where lawmakers have the power to protect these essential workers today – these community members contribute $965 million annually, FWD.us said.
“TPS holders deserve the same respect and certainty as anyone else,” Alianza Americas continued in the statement. “They should not be forced to navigate rumors, leaks, or informal statements to understand what will happen to their immigration status.”
LONG-SETTLED WORKERS AND THEIR EMPLOYERS ASK – AND FEAR – WHAT’S NEXT
Gloria, the Alexandria, Virginia housekeeper who is being let go by her boss this week, “said that she is out of options but that her daughter, who recently began studying at a Virginia university, is her biggest concern,” The Washington Post continued. “If I hadn’t had a daughter born here, I would leave,” she said, “but I feel I have to keep going for her sake.”
Daysi Gonzalez, 31, has called the U.S. her home since she was just six and graduated from Brigham Young University – Idaho in 2018. She was a partner at a political consulting firm until this month, when she was also laid off. While she’s grieving her own likely upheaval from the only country she’s known as home, she also slammed the administration’s mishandling of Salvadoran TPS.
“There’s no clear guidance,” she said. “There’s just confusion and misinformation online that’s getting people’s hopes up, that’s getting my hopes up, but I need to be a realist about this and plan for the worst.” She told The Washington Post that she would likely “start looking at dismantling my life here, buying a plane ticket back to El Salvador.”
MASS DELEGALIZATION HURTS EVERYBODY
As in the case of Haitian TPS holders, continued attacks on Salvadoran immigrants will cause a ripple effect in all communities, no matter their legal status. “Lori Graf, chief executive officer at the Maryland Building Industry Association, said removing TPS holders will ‘make housing more expensive and make it take longer to get done,’” The Washington Post noted. Roughly 36,000 Salvadoran TPS holders help keep this industry afloat, and ongoing mass deportation efforts targeting construction workers have already exacerbated the housing crisis and resulted in an increase in housing costs.
“You don’t replace a skilled, qualified workforce in the construction industry overnight,” Jimmy Williams Jr., president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, told the outlet.
