The Trump Administration has begun rolling back protections for\u00a0Temporary Protected Status (\u201cTPS\u201d) beneficiaries, most recently for almost\u00a0200,000 Salvadorans who fled devastating earthquakes in 2001. On January\u00a08, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen announced her decision\u00a0to terminate El Salvador\u2019s TPS designation, which will take effect September\u00a09, 2019. In addition, similar announcements have been made for Haiti and\u00a0Nicaragua, while about 40,000 Hondurans currently await their own determination.<\/p>\n
Some news outlets report the policy reversal as extremist\u2014even cruel\u2014in its mandate that hundreds of thousands of Salvadorans leave the country\u00a0or, alternatively, find some a way to attain citizenship. In contrast, the government\u00a0insists that it is adhering to the original concept of the TPS program,\u00a0namely that the relief granted was supposed to be temporary. Secretary\u00a0Nielsen\u2019s memorandum states that conditions in El Salvador are now sufficient\u00a0to facilitate such a major resettlement. However, the communication\u00a0does not address the 190,000 or so U.S.-born children to Salvadoran TPS\u00a0recipients.<\/p>\n
This policy reversal comes in the wake of major immigration overhauls,\u00a0most notably an end to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood\u00a0Arrivals (\u201cDACA\u201d) program. While the ultimate shape of these changes may\u00a0be difficult to predict, it is clear that Salvadoran parents of child citizens may\u00a0have some difficult choices ahead. In addressing this issue, this piece will\u00a0take a closer look at the TPS program (Section II), discuss in more detail the\u00a0decision to terminate El Salvador\u2019s status (Section III), and present contrasting\u00a0responses to these policy changes (Section IV).<\/p>\n