Trump Administration Ended Protected Status for 250,000 Salvadorans
CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 1/19/2018, 1:38 p.m.
President Donald Trump's administration is significantly scaling back the number of immigrants granted what's known as Temporary Protected Status, which allows them to live and work legally in the US. TPS protects these individuals from deportation, as a form of humanitarian relief for people who would face extreme hardship if they were forced to return to homelands devastated by armed conflict and natural disasters. Under the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security has announced the end of TPS for immigrants from El Salvador, Haiti, Sudan and Nicaragua but extended it for immigrants from South Sudan. And this year, the agency will decide whether to extend TPS for five other nations: Syria, Nepal, Honduras, Yemen and Somalia. About 435,000 people from 10 countries have TPS, according to the latest data provided to CNN by US Citizenship and Immigration Services. Some activists and experts use lower estimates, noting that official statistics likely include people who are no longer in the program because their immigration status has changed or they have left the United States. No matter how you slice it, tens of thousands will lose TPS in the coming years, which means they could face deportation if they don't leave the United States.