A profound sense of demoralization and dread has gripped El Salvadorans, their families, their employers, and their communities across the United States today. In President Trump’s latest reversal of immigration policies that seek to terminate humanitarian programming, in concert with his new Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, they officially announced that an estimated 200,000 individuals with protected status from El Salvador for more than a decade must now leave the United States. This decision arrives weeks after more than 45,000 Haitians, the second largest group, also lost special protections that they had been granted eight years ago.
TPS provides temporary lawful status and work authorization to people already in the United States, whether they entered legally or not, from countries affected by armed conflict, natural disaster, or other strife. Immigrant advocates, including attorneys like New Jersey immigration expert Edward Shulman, Esq., nationwide community activist organizations, the United States Chamber of Commerce, and even the El Salvadoran government have pled for the United States to extend the critically important TPS program, saying that conditions in El Salvador remain dire. In particular, the El Salvadoran government has cited several factors, including drought, extreme poverty and widespread gang violence in El Salvador, as reasons to keep the protections in place. In addition to post-earthquake physical, medical, financial, and community-based devastation, San Salvador, the capital, is considered at the present juncture to be one of the most dangerous cities on Earth.
As 200,000 El Salvadorans are frantically scrambling for a way to remain in the United States, joining the other thousands of individuals from Haiti and Nicaragua whose protective status designation have been likewise stripped away, it is profoundly important for these people to seek immigration advice immediately. At the Shulman Law Group, LLC, the team of devoted Immigration Attorneys and staff are dedicated to assisting individuals whose TPS status will be terminated to explore other avenues of relief to avoid departing from the United States. Says Immigration firm founder, Shulman, “noteworthy is the fact the TPS termination will come with an 18-month delay, allowing individuals who have lived under the status to seek other means of staying in the United States. Specifically, TPS protectees will have until September 9, 2019 so it is essential not to wait until the last minute because applications for visas and other immigrant categories often take months to prepare and submit.”