The Trump administration has ended a protected status program for immigrants from El Salvador that began in 2001 after a pair of catastrophic earthquakes struck that country. Nearly 200,000 Salvadorians have been living in the US since 2001. After the cancellation of the program those beneficiaries will be forced to leave to the US.
The Temporary Protected Status Program (TPS) allows individuals to remain in the country as well as grants them work authorization, whether they entered legally or not. TPS is granted to citizens from countries that have been affected by armed conflict, natural disaster or other devastation. Countries are granted the designation and the Secretary of Homeland Security can renew it for six, 12 or 18 months. There is no limit to the number of renewals a country can receive.
The Trump administration says the program has turned into a permanent benefit program for hundreds of thousands of people. The decision to end the program for Salvadorans comes just weeks after the program was ended for 45,000 Haitians. They had received TPS protections after earthquakes hit Haiti in 2010. Nicaraguans lost their protections last year.