US opens door to deportation of 200,000 Salvadorans

Immigrants will have 18 months to get a legal permit or leave the country]

Immigrants will have 18 months to obtain a legal permit or leave the country

First it was Nicaraguan immigrants, then Haitians and now Salvadorans. Donald Trump's administration announced on Monday the end of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a special program that prevents deportation, for around 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants. It is the Republican administration's most severe blow to a specific group of immigrants in the United States.

Salvadoran citizens received under TPS have 18 months, until September 2019, to leave the US or obtain another legal residence permit in order to stay. If they don't, they will be considered undocumented immigrants and could be deported.

The trauma is enormous. Many Salvadorans have been rooted in the US for years since they emigrated from their country after the bloody civil war in the 1980s and 1990s. They have children born in the US, who, unlike their parents, have citizenship and cannot be expelled. The program began in 2001, after El Salvador suffered two devastating earthquakes.

TPS has become an easy target for Trump's hardline immigration policy. Critics maintain that it was designed to offer temporary, rather than permanent, migration protection. Proponents argue that it is unsafe for immigrants to return to their countries.

The Department of Homeland Security has to decide frequently whether or not to renew the protections. TPS, which now benefits 10 countries, was created in 1990 to grant temporary visas and work permits to citizens affected by wars or natural disasters. The result is that immigrants who are already present in the US cannot be deported to their countries of origin because of their instability.

Previous cancellations of the TPS have affected far fewer immigrants. In November, 59,000 Haitians, whose program began after the 2010 earthquake, and 5,300 Nicaraguans, who were protected after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, were denied asylum (also for a period of 18 months). In September, this status was withdrawn from around 1,000 Sudanese immigrants.

However, the US government has decided to postpone the decision on the fate of 86,000 Hondurans until July, pending an analysis of whether it is safe for them to return to their country, which has been rocked by a wave of violence. And it maintained protection for around fifty immigrants from South Sudan until mid-2019.

In the case of El Salvador, the Department of Homeland Security used arguments very similar to those used in the cancellations for Haiti and Nicaragua. "The original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes no longer exist," said a statement from the department headed by Kirstjen Nielsen. It pointed out that there is no longer a "substantial disruption of living conditions" in that country and that the US has deported Salvadoran immigrants in recent years (around 39,000 in the last two), which "demonstrates that El Salvador's temporary inability to adequately repatriate its citizens after the earthquake has been addressed".

After the blow represented by the end of TPS, Nielsen repeated the tactic of passing the buck to Congress, employed by Trump with the DACA program, which will end in March and, if not stopped, will allow the deportation of some 800,000 immigrants who arrived as children in the US. "Only Congress can legislate a permanent solution that addresses the lack of lasting legal immigration status for those currently protected by TPS," he said. "The 18 months until expiration gives Congress time to find a potential legislative solution."

Lawmakers, however, have so far been unable to reach a consensus on DACA and it seems unlikely that, given Republican control of both Houses, an ambitious reform on TPS will prosper.

According to the Center for Migration Studies, 51% of Salvadorans with SPT have lived in the US for at least 20 years. A total of 88% of them work and 10% have married Americans. A quarter of Salvadorans live in California and a fifth in the suburbs of Washington.

Latino organizations and politicians of Hispanic origin, both Democrats and Republicans, have harshly criticized the Trump administration's decision. "The United States has turned its back on its promise to give refuge to those suffering violence and persecution in their home country," denounced Oscar Chacón, director of the Americas Alliance. "Although living conditions may have improved slightly, El Salvador now faces a significant problem with drug trafficking, gangs and crime," added Republican congressman Mario Díaz-Balart. Democrat Bob Menéndez lamented the "nativist impulses" of the Republican administration.

Source: brazil.elpais.com