Washington, DC – Below is a column by Maribel Hastings from America’s Voice en Español translated to English from Spanish. It ran in several Spanish-language media outlets earlier this week:
In its frantic race to arrest 2,000 immigrants a day as part of its deportation machine, it would come as no surprise if the Trump administration allowed Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to expire for more than 170,000 Salvadorans with established lives and jobs in the United States, many of whom have been here for 25 years.
But the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stated that “an announcement on El Salvador’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time. Until such announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the US under TPS retain protection.”
These are people who will lose their work permits and protection from deportation if the program expires as scheduled on September 9. The anxiety continues.
In any case, ending TPS is part of Trump’s strategy to render as many immigrants as possible undocumented. If there is no extension, Salvadorans would be the latest group to be made undocumented—precisely to make them vulnerable to detention and eventual deportation—as Trump attempts to fulfill his promise to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history.
He has not succeeded with traditional raids and has opted for other mechanisms to increase the number of potential detainees, including canceling TPS for 13 countries and rejecting asylum requests—or simply ignoring them—if the person is detained.
This week, the Republican Party is holding a “convention” in Texas ahead of the midterm elections with the sole aim of highlighting Trump’s “achievements.” Immigration will be one of the central issues—an issue that, curiously, has slipped out of the president’s control, as he has failed to please anyone.
The extremists who support him believe he hasn’t done enough. At the same time, other groups think he has gone too far—even causing the deaths of U.S. citizens at the hands of ICE agents, deporting immigrants with no criminal history, and depriving key industries of labor, thereby driving up the prices of goods and services.
One such sector is Salvadoran workers. A recent report by FWD.us and the National TPS Alliance stated that “Salvadorans are the longest-tenured TPS population in the country,” and further added that “Salvadoran TPS holders contribute $5.4 billion annually to the economy, pay $1.5 billion in taxes, and are critical parts of the construction, transportation, manufacturing, food service economy — to name only a few sectors.”
Of the 170,000 Salvadoran TPS beneficiaries,152,000 are already part of the U.S. workforce: 36,000 in construction, 23,000 in transportation, and 18,000 in manufacturing, to name a few.
The press reported that Salvadoran activists and organizations in the United States asked El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele to intercede with President Trump to secure another extension. If beneficiaries lose their work permits, the Central American country would stop receiving remittances that account for nearly 25% of El Salvador’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). TPS beneficiaries are a segment of the Salvadoran diaspora who send remittances to their families.
According to EFE, citing the risk-rating agency Moody’s, “about 20% of Salvadorans who send remittances to the country have TPS, and their remittances total about $600 million a year, equivalent to 10% of total remittances and 2.2% of El Salvador’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).”
The expiration of TPS does not mean 170,000 people will be automatically deported, as they are beginning to seek alternatives to remain legally in the United States—albeit with limited avenues. But the economic adjustments made by individuals, families, and business owners will undoubtedly have repercussions in both the United States and El Salvador.
The fact is that despite the economic contribution of immigrants—both documented and undocumented—and their essential labor in various sectors of our economy, the Trump administration persists in its short-sighted and prejudiced immigration policy, which the majority of voters reject as too extreme.
These are immigrants of color whom Trump rejects, even if it harms the economy and the voters who have seen the prices of food, housing, and services skyrocket since Trump intensified his war on immigrants upon assuming his second term in January 2025.
These voters disapprove of his handling of various issues—such as the economy, immigration, and the war with Iran—and may make the Republicans pay the price in the midterm elections on November 3.
The original Spanish version is here.
