DHS Decision for El Salvador Affecting 200,000 People Expected in 3 Days
Washington Post: 200,000 Salvadorans could lose U.S. residency and face expulsion
Oscar Chacón, co-founder and executive director of Alianza Americas, a U.S. nonprofit that advocates for immigrants, said Salvadorans with temporary status ‘should be acknowledged for what they have become’ — effectively permanent residents of the United States.
‘They have become very strongly embedded in U.S. society,’ Chacón said in a news conference this week, noting Salvadoran TPS holders have work permits, pay taxes and are regularly vetted by DHS to ensure they remain law-abiding.
Nearly one-third own their homes, according to a 2016 survey, and more than 60 percent have at least one child who is a U.S. citizen.
Voice of America: Deadline Nears for US to Rule on Salvadoran Temporary Residents
El Salvador’s TPS case is unique by sheer volume: 195,000 beneficiaries, who are parents to 192,700 U.S. citizen children. Since TPS does not confer any pathway to citizenship, but does allow people to live and work in the U.S. legally, the longer term cases have created a generation of mixed-status families now facing an uncertain future.
The Salvadorans under TPS are also a part of the U.S. economy. As vice president of business development at Shapiro & Duncan Mechanical Contractors in Rockville, Maryland, Mark Drury has employed Salvadoran workers in a variety of positions, ‘from the management level down the field level.’
Drury already can’t get the workers he needs. ‘Right now, we could hire 40 people and not meet the needs we have,’ he says. ‘We have to turn work away every day because there aren’t enough people in the construction industry. To take away more is not a good solution.’
The American Prospect: The Other Imperiled Immigrants
THE ALVARADO SIBLINGS and their mother are paralyzed by the idea of going back.
The gang violence, the lack of work—I wouldn’t survive in El Salvador,” says Carlos, now 25 years old. Carlos has received many a cautionary tale from his aunt, who he says will soon have to abandon her transportation business because of incessant extortion and death threats from local gangs. Salvadorans pay an estimated $390 million a year in extortion fees, while Hondurans pay around $200 million.
Homeland Security currently lacks the resources to deport thousands of individuals the moment they lose TPS protections. It also remains unlikely that the entire population of TPS holders will actually self-deport themselves: More than half of TPS holders from El Salvador and Honduras have resided in the United States for more than 20 years and have more than 245,000 U.S.-born children. A far more plausible scenario is one where tens of thousands of immigrants continue to live in the country after their status expires, no longer paying taxes and unable to find legal employment.
NBC: Hondurans and Nicaraguans face deadline to renew TPS
Non-profit organizations across the country are working to renew the Temporary Protection Status (TPS) for Nicaraguans and Hondurans who have until February 13to file their papers.
In November, the Trump administration announced they would not extend TPS for Nicaraguans and gave them 14 months to leave the country, but they still need to renew their status in order to remain in the country legally. TPS had allowed the group of about 2,500 to remain in the U.S. legally for almost two decades.
National Catholic Reporter: In op-ed, border bishop pleads for TPS leniency for sake of children
‘How we treat the most vulnerable in our society is reflective of who we are and whether we have learned anything in the 2,000 years since the birth of another immigrant child, born in a stable because his parents could find no room for him at the inn — an event we have just celebrated,’ [Bishop Mark Seitz] wrote.
Pacific Standard: THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS CLOSE TO DEPORTING HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF SALVADORANS
A decision to remove TPS designation from Salvadoran recipients could have dire consequences at home and abroad. In a letter written to the Trump administration late last month, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops lobbied that TPS be extended for Salvadorans, as the removal of the residency status would separate families. Salvadoran TPS recipients have roughly 192,700 children born in the U.S., according to findings from the New York-based Center for Migration Studies think tank—those children would face uncertain futures if their parents were forced to return to El Salvador.
