WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants allowed to live and work in the United States since 2001 will lose their right to remain in the country in 2019, officials said on Monday, marking the Trump administration’s latest move to tighten immigration enforcement. 
 
 The United States will end the Salvadorans’ temporary protected status (TPS) on Sept. 9, 2019, giving them 18 months to leave or seek lawful residency, and for El Salvador to prepare for their return, administration officials said. The status was granted in the wake of two devastating 2001 earthquakes in El Salvador that left hundreds of thousands in the country homeless. 
 
 The decision to end TPS for Salvadorans is part of the administration’s broader push to tighten immigration laws and expel those living in the United States illegally. The move was heavily criticized by immigrant advocates who said it ignored violence in El Salvador and gave the Salvadorans few options but to leave the United States or remain illegally. 
 
 The Trump administration has faced a series of deadlines over the past year to decide whether to end the protected status of immigrants in the United States whose home countries have been affected by disasters. 
 
 Salvadorans are by far the largest group under TPS, a program administration officials said is supposed to provide a temporary haven for victims, not a permanent right to remain in the United States. 
 
 Critics have complained TPS has allowed participants to repeatedly extend their stays in 6-month to 18-month increments. 
 
 Patricia Hernandez, 53, arrived in the United States in 2000 and applied for TPS after the 2001 earthquakes. She has lived in North Carolina for 18 years and runs a subcontracting construction business with her Honduran husband. The couple have two U.S.-born teenage sons. 
 
 “This is a real blow for everyone,” said Hernandez by telephone. “Most of us pay taxes, we’re not living off the government, we’re not criminals.” 
 
 The family will move to Honduras with their children and the couple do not intend to return north, she said, though they worry about violence and political instability in central America. 
 
 Trump administration changes to the TPS program mean that over the next two years approximately 250,000 people who previously had permission to live and work in the United States will be subject to deportation if they remain. 
 
 Haitians and Nicaraguans will lose their protected status in 2019 and Hondurans, the second largest group in the program, could lose their rights later this year. 
 
 Maria Gloria Ceren de Quinonez poses with a picture of her daughter Susana and granddaughters Gabriela and Monica who live in the U.S. under the Temporary Protected Status, in Santa Tecla, El Salvador January 8, 2018. REUTERS/Jose Cabezas 
 
 “The past practice of allowing foreign nationals to remain in the United States long after an initial emergency in their home countries has ended has undermined the integrity of the program and essentially made the ‘temporary’ protected status a front operation for backdoor permanent immigration,” said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, which favors less immigration overall. 
 
 VIOLENCE IN EL SALVADOR 
 
 Advocates of the program say long-term resident Salvadorans and their children should not be sent back to El Salvador, a country struggling with a weak economy and gang violence that has given it one of the world’s highest murder rates. 
 
 “Our (U.S) government is complicit in breaking up families — nearly 275,000 U.S.-born children have a parent who is a TPS holder — and further destabilizing our neighboring countries,” said Oscar Chacon, executive director of Alianza Americas, an immigrant advocacy group. 
 
 There are approximately 1.35 million Salvadorans of any status living in the United States, according to U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by the Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think tank. 
 
 A senior administration official briefing reporters on the decision said it was based on the status of El Salvador’s recovery from the 2001 earthquakes. The country has received millions of dollars in aid and rebuilt schools, homes and hospitals, the official said. 
 
 In the past two years, the United States has repatriated 39,000 Salvadorans, showing the ability of El Salvador to absorb an influx, the official said. 
 
 The government of El Salvador said on Monday that it was glad the administration decided to at least leave the program in place until September 2019. 
 
 “El Salvador’s Foreign Ministry lobbied heavily for the interests of our fellow citizens,” the government said in a statement, adding that it would continue to search for alternatives and seek action by the U.S. Congress to protect the migrants. 
 
 The U.S. Chamber of Commerce had urged the government to extend TPS protections for Salvadorans, Haitians and Hondurans, saying “the loss of employment authorization for these populations would adversely impact several key industries,” including “construction, food processing, hospitality, and home healthcare services.” 
 
 Congressional Democrats on Monday expressed support for finding a permanent solution to help Salvadorans in the United States. But that will be politically difficult at a time when there are rival immigration priorities, including providing permanent protection for “Dreamers” - undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. 
 
 That effort has been weighed down by demands from conservatives in Congress to couple any such move with new efforts to clamp down on illegal immigration, especially from Mexico and Central America. 
 
 Slideshow (10 Images) ||||| President Trump grew frustrated with lawmakers Thursday in the Oval Office when they discussed protecting immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal, according to several people briefed on the meeting. 
 
 "Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?" Trump said, according to these people, referring to countries mentioned by the lawmakers. 
 
 Trump then suggested that the United States should instead bring more people from countries such as Norway, whose prime minister he met with Wednesday. The president, according to a White House official, also suggested he would be open to more immigrants from Asian countries because he felt that they help the United States economically. 
 
 In addition, the president singled out Haiti, telling lawmakers that immigrants from that country must be left out of any deal, these people said. 
 
 "Why do we need more Haitians?" Trump said, according to people familiar with the meeting. "Take them out." 
 
 In November, the Trump administration rescinded deportation protection granted to nearly 60,000 Haitians after the 2010 earthquake and told them to return home by July 2019. 
 
 Lawmakers were taken aback by the comments, according to people familiar with their reactions. Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) had proposed cutting the visa lottery program by 50 percent and then prioritizing countries already in the system, a White House official said. 
 
 A White House spokesman defended Trump's position on immigration without directly addressing his remarks. White House officials did not dispute the account. 
 
 [200,000 Salvadorans may be forced to leave the U.S. as Trump ends immigration protection] 
 
 "Certain Washington politicians choose to fight for foreign countries, but President Trump will always fight for the American people," spokesman Raj Shah said in a statement issued after The Washington Post first reported Trump's remarks. ". . . Like other nations that have merit-based immigration, President Trump is fighting for permanent solutions that make our country stronger by welcoming those who can contribute to our society, grow our economy and assimilate into our great nation." 
 
 Trump built his candidacy and presidency around hard stances on immigration, vowing to build a wall along the Mexican border and cut legal immigration by half, among other positions. Officials at the Department of Homeland Security have increased immigration raids, including dozens this week at convenience stores across the country. 
 
 Trump's comments Thursday also put further scrutiny on his long-standing tendency to make racially charged remarks — including attacks on protesting black athletes and his claim that there were fine people "on both sides" after neo-Nazis rioted in Charlottesville, Va. Trump falsely claimed for years that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and took out advertisements calling for the death penalty for members of the Central Park Five — four black youths and a Hispanic youth who were accused of a brutal rape in New York and later exonerated. 
 
 The president's remarks were quickly met with scorn from Demo­crats and some Republicans and could throw another wrench into bipartisan discussions on immigration, which had shown promise in recent days, according to legislators. 
 
 Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D-Ill.) said the comments "will shake the confidence that people have" in the ongoing immigration policy talks. 
 
 "Democrats and Republicans in the Senate made a proposal. The answer is this racist outburst of the president. How can you take him seriously?" Gutiérrez said. "They [Republicans] don't believe in immigration — it's always been about people of color and keeping them out of this country." 
 
 Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said on Twitter that Trump's remarks "are further proof that his Make America Great Again Agenda is really a Make America White Again agenda." 
 
 Some Republicans also raised objections. Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah), whose family is from Haiti, said in a statement that Trump's remarks were "unkind, divisive, elitist, and fly in the face of our nation's values. This behavior is unacceptable from the leader of our nation." 
 
 "My grandmother used to say, 'Digame con quién caminas, y te diré quién eres.' 'Tell me who you walk with, and I'll tell you who you are,' " said Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), who represents most of Harlem and is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. "If he's walking around with white supremacists and supporting them, this kind of talk doesn't surprise me." 
 
 The New York Times also reported last year that Trump said immigrants from Haiti have AIDS. The White House denied that report. 
 
 [White House: No deal yet on immigration] 
 
 In a statement condemning Thursday's remarks by Trump, Haiti's ambassador to the United States, Paul G. Altidor, said that "the president was either misinformed or miseducated about Haiti and its people." He said the Haitian Embassy was inundated with emails from Americans apologizing for what the president said. 
 
 Democrats were quick to note that Trump employs Haitians at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and that he praised Haitian Americans during a roundtable in Miami in September. 
 
 "Whether you vote for me or don't vote for me, I really want to be your greatest champion, and I will be your champion," Trump said at the roundtable. 
 
 Alix Desulme, a city council member in North Miami, home to thousands of Haitian Americans, said the president's latest remarks were "disgusting." 
 
 "Oh, my God. Oh, my God Jesus," Desulme said. "I don't know how much worse it can get." 
 
 "This is very alarming. We know he's not presidential, but this is a low," he said. "It's disheartening that someone who is the leader of the free world would use such demeaning language to talk about other folks, referring to folks of color." 
 
 Trump's critics also said racially incendiary language could damage relationships with foreign allies. 
 
 For many of Trump's supporters, however, the comments may not prove to be particularly damaging. Trump came under fire from conservatives this week for seeming to suggest that he would be open to a comprehensive immigration reform deal without money for a border wall, before he quickly backtracked. 
 
 "He's trying to win me back," conservative author Ann Coulter, who has called for harsh limits on immigration, wrote on Twitter. 
 
 Outlining a potential bipartisan deal, the lawmakers discussed restoring protections for countries that have been removed from the temporary protected status (TPS) program while committing $1.5 billion for a border wall and making changes to the visa lottery system. Lawmakers mentioned that members of the Congressional Black Caucus had requested that some African countries be included in a deal, according to a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation. 
 
 The exchange was "salty" on all sides, this person said, with the president growing profane and animated while discussing immigrants from other countries. "It did not go well," this person said. 
 
 [Trump wants to remove these immigrants. An ugly bit of history tells us what it could do to the economy.] 
 
 The administration announced this week that it was removing TPS status for citizens of El Salvador. Haitians were added to the TPS program because of a strong earthquake that devastated Haiti eight years ago. 
 
 Trump had seemed amenable to a deal earlier in the day during phone calls with lawmakers, aides said, but shifted his position in the meeting and did not seem interested in the bipartisan compromise. 
 
 The scene played out hurriedly in the morning. Graham and Durbin thought they would be meeting with Trump alone and were surprised to find immigration hard-liners such as Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) at the meeting. White House and Capitol Hill aides say Stephen Miller, the president's top immigration official, was concerned there could be a deal proposed that was too liberal and made sure conservative lawmakers were present. 
 
 After the meeting, Marc Short, Trump's director of legislative affairs, said the White House was nowhere near a bipartisan agreement on immigration. 
 
 "We still think we can get there," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at the daily White House news briefing. 
 
 Ed O'Keefe, Maria Sacchetti and Erica Werner contributed to this report.
– An estimated 200,000 Salvadorans and their 190,000 US-born children aren't the only people stressed out about the administration's decision to withdraw Temporary Protected Status: The government of El Salvador, which estimates 95% of TPS holders are employed or own businesses in the US, says it will "face a great challenge" if tens of thousands are deported after Sept.19, 2019, when the protection from deportation introduced after two deadly earthquakes in 2001 expires. But Salvadoran officials don't think it will come to that. Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez tells the Washington Post that the government will lobby Congress to find a way for people losing TPS status to remain legal US residents. "We think we have sufficient time and will work hard for this alternative," he says. Congressional Democrats support finding a way for the Salvadorans to stay, though they have multiple other immigration issues to deal with, Reuters reports. Advocates warn that El Salvador has one of the world's highest murder rates, making it a dangerous place to deport people to—and that its economy will be devastated if it loses billions of dollars in remittances from the US. "This is really bad news for our country," Nayib Bukele, the mayor of San Salvador, tells the Los Angeles Times. "Our country doesn't create opportunities for the Salvadorans who live here. Imagine what we're going to do with 200,000 more coming in." Experts say that if there are mass deportations, many former TPS holders are likely to try to move to the US illegally—as will some Salvadorans displaced by the skilled and bilingual new arrivals.