On January 8th, 200k Salvadorans Learned They Would Lose Their Status
Salvadoran TPS holders across the country find themselves in the face of deportation as they confront their new reality, as a direct result of the Trump Administration’s January 8th decision to revoke Temporary Protected Status for 200,000 Salvadoran TPS recipients.
Related media coverage follows:
Daily Dot: This is what will happen once Temporary Protected Status is revoked for 300K immigrants
By Samantha Grasso
The lasting impact of separating families and sending nationals back to countries they may hardly know.
The effects of these TPS changes will be felt beyond familial bonds, and into the economies of both the U.S. and the former TPS-receiving country. For example, Salvadoran TPS recipients often send money back to family members residing in El Salvador; according to the Times, the country received $4.6 billion from abroad, mostly from the U.S., which accounted for 17 percent of the country’s economy. About 80 to 85 percent of these recipients send money home, according to Washington, D.C. think tank InterAmerican Dialogue via NPR, with each immigrant sending back $4,300 on average annually.
Desert Sun: A Salvadoran couple adopted three American daughters. Now they face threat of deportation
By Rebecca Plevin
The Desert Sun is using the couple’s initials because they fear they could be targeted by immigration officials.
This Coachella family’s dilemma is the result of the intersection of federal immigration policies and the state adoption system, two labyrinthine systems that don’t often communicate with each other. In California, adoption officials prioritize stability when placing a child in a new home, but they are not required to ask adoptive parents about their immigration status. In this case, the Temporary Protected Status for Salvadorans – which had come to appear “temporary” in name only – allowed S.M. and A.A. to build the permanent home the little girls needed.
For S.M. and A.A., maybe the only thing worse than being sent back to El Salvador is the idea of being separated from their daughters. And S.M. knows it’s a possibility: She’s seen news reports about families being divided by detention and deportation.
“It breaks your heart,” S.M. said. “I would go crazy if I were left without my kids.”
Houston Business Journal: Op-Ed: Trump administration’s decision puts over 36,000 Salvadorans in Texas at risk of deportation [OP-ED]
By Ruby L. Powers
A typical TPS recipient has lived here for up to 20 years and has raised a family, bought a home and paid taxes. TPS has helped build the U.S. economy by allowing its recipients to help local businesses grow. Many Salvadoran immigrants have integrated themselves into local communities as established business owners, employees, parents of minor U.S.-citizen children and leaders in the community. Without TPS, the recipients will be without work authorization, and local businesses will struggle to find replacements.
While TPS is, by definition, temporary, many immigrants have integrated themselves productively into communities here as the conditions in El Salvador have only worsened.
This announcement is a major blow to Salvadorans and the immigrant community in the U.S. as deportations may now be rampant and inevitable. For many, returning to their motherland would mean risking their lives and their children’s lives in a setting with the same crime and conditions that forced them to flee in the first place.