Title: Trump Administration Says That Nearly 200,000 Salvadorans Must Leave - The New York Times
Headings: Trump Administration Says That Nearly 200,000 Salvadorans Must Leave
Trump Administration Says That Nearly 200,000 Salvadorans Must Leave
Omar Salinas has Temporary Protected Status, which is granted to U.S. immigrants from countries crippled by disaster or war. The Trump administration has announced that it will end the program.
Listen to ‘The Daily’: U.S. Ends Protections for Salvadorans

Content: Image
A landslide in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, following an earthquake in January 2001. Citing damage from the earthquake, the American government permitted Salvadorans illegally in the U.S. to remain. Credit...
La Prensa Grafica, via Associated Press
With his protected status, Carlos Jiron, another Salvadoran, started a small contracting business and won bids for big jobs, including to paint federal buildings in the Washington area. “We have built a life here,” said Mr. Jiron, 41, who lives with his wife and two American-born children in a four-bedroom house they bought in Springfield, Va.
He will have to decide whether to take his children to El Salvador, where he says they would not maximize their potential and would face safety threats; leave them with guardians in the United States; or remain in the country at the risk of arrest and deportation as one of the millions of undocumented immigrants. His 14-year-old daughter, Tania, a fan of Disney movies and hip-hop music, said she could not fathom starting over in El Salvador. “ This is where I was born and am supposed to be raised,” she said. Temporary protections were granted to Salvadorans who were in the United States in March 2001 after two earthquakes in January and February of that year killed more than 1,000 people and destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes. Over the next 15 years, the George W. Bush and Obama administrations extended the protections several times.