Salvadorans in the United States with temporary protected status, known as TPS, and who had already applied to retain their status will have their work authorizations extended six months, according to a letter sent to recipients obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The Department of Homeland Security will extend the work authorizations for all recipients from El Salvador who have pending applications to continue living and working in the U.S. though the end of the program in September 2019. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced in January that the program — which offers protections from deportation and legal permission to work in the U.S. for Salvadorans and nationals of nine other countries who are in the U.S. — would end Sept. 9, 2019.
A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services official confirmed the decision to the Washington Examiner on Friday. The extension is a technical correction that was made in order to align the final end date of work documents and TPS for Salvadorans: Sept. 9, 2019, according to an official.
The 262,500 beneficiaries residing in the country were told they could re-apply for an extension to remain here through that date. USCIS said the Friday decision will affect “thousands.”
A Federal Register notice issued Jan. 18 stated people would have six months — or until Sept. 5. — to ask for an automatic extension to work in the U.S., known as an employment authorization document, or EADs.
Now, those with pending applications who would have lost their ability to work would have expired next week will automatically be protected for the next 180 days.
Specifically, people whose work protections were supposed to end March 9 of this year who had applied for an extension after Jan. 18, as well as those whose work papers expired Sept. 9, 2016, but who applied for an extension after July 8, 2016, are eligible for the extension.
DHS originally granted temporary protected status to the group of Salvadorans following two earthquakes that devastated the Central American country in 2001. The program provides temporary lawful status and work authorizations to people who arrived in the U.S. due to armed conflict, natural disaster, or other reasons back in their home countries.
USCIS is in the process of sending new employment authorization documents to people but has already mailed letters to let them know of the extension, the official confirmed.
The same courtesy extension was recently extended for recipients from Haiti, whose program is also slated to conclude.
Salvadorans who have been in the country for up to 16 years were given 18 months to return home.
“[O]fficials in the Trump administration say the only criteria the government should consider is whether the original reason for the designation — in this case, damage from the earthquakes — still exists. The homeland security secretary decided that enough of the damage had been repaired 17 years later, and so the protections should end,” DHS said in a statement in January.
The El Salvador program had repeatedly been renewed under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Obama last renewed it in 2016, citing drought, poverty and widespread gang violence as reasons to continue the program.
Over the past two years, approximately 39,000 Salvadorans have been repatriated.
Since the fall, DHS has said it will conclude temporary protected status programs for Nepal, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Sudan, Liberia, Haiti, Somalia, and Honduras.
However, Nielsen announced an 18-month extension for the temporary protected status program for Syria, South Sudan, and Yemen.
