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Salvadorans Who ‘Grew Up With TPS’ Face Deportation Threat in the U.S.
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Elections & Politics

Salvadorans Who ‘Grew Up With TPS’ Face Deportation Threat in the U.S.

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire Named sources New plan
  • More than 170,000 Salvadorans could lose Temporary Protected Status in the United States when the protection expires on Sept. 9, according to the National Immigration Forum.
  • Beneficiaries will lose work authorization and legal status, placing them at risk of deportation to a country some barely know.
  • Alma, who arrived in the United States as an infant and received TPS at age five, says she has built her entire life there.

For more than 170,000 Salvadorans in the United States, Sept. 9 could mark the end of the legal protection that has shaped their lives for decades. When Temporary Protected Status expires, many will face the prospect of returning to a country they barely know or no longer remember.

I have practically been in the United States all my life: I grew up here, went to school here, bought my house here, and I am pursuing a career.

— AlmaA Salvadoran TPS beneficiary describes the life she built in the United States.

Alma, a 30-year-old Salvadoran living in Missouri, received TPS in 2001, when she was five. She arrived in the United States in her mother’s arms at 18 months old. She grew up there, attended school there, bought a home and is pursuing a degree. “I have practically been in the United States all my life: I grew up here, went to school here, bought my house here, and I am pursuing a career,” she told EFE.

She says she has no memories of El Salvador, but remembers the immigration protection that followed her childhood. “I grew up with TPS,” she said, recalling how immigration officers once lifted her onto a chair to take her fingerprints. As a child, she thought it was a game. As an adult, she understands they were collecting her biometric data.

I grew up with TPS.

— AlmaShe describes how long the immigration protection has been part of her life.

The Trump administration has ended TPS protections for several countries, including Haiti, Venezuela and Afghanistan. In El Salvador’s case, the protection will simply expire on Sept. 9, affecting about 170,000 people, according to the National Immigration Forum. They will lose their work permits and legal status, leaving them at imminent risk of deportation.

I grew up with an American life, with American values. Why do they want to remove us?

— AlmaShe questions the prospect of deportation after spending nearly her entire life in the United States.

Alma works for a Missouri company and has risen to become a supervisor. She says the company, which also operates plants outside the United States, is preparing to lose “very hard-working people,” including employees who have worked there since 2001. “It hurts to see life continue flowing and people replaced, while those affected, those protected by TPS, leave with nothing,” she said. Living in a Republican state makes the situation harder, she added, because the federal lawmakers she might ask to defend the program support ending it. “When people tell me, ‘Go back’ to El Salvador, for me it is not going back,” she said.

It hurts to see life continue flowing and people replaced, while those affected, those protected by TPS, leave with nothing.

— AlmaShe describes the impact on TPS holders and their employers.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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