Donald Trump’s misguided war on “bad hombres” is causing a lot of collateral damage.

Over the past three months, the Trump administration has targeted 250,000 law-abiding, tax-paying immigrants by stripping them of their legal status and turning them into the undocumented immigrants of tomorrow.

By canceling the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for a quarter million Nicaraguans, Haitians, Sudanese, and Salvadorans, Trump is making the undocumented immigrant problem even worse in this country. And that’s not even counting the 800,000 immigrants affected by Trump’s decision to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.

“This administration has now taken away lawful status from more than 1 million people, forcing them to live in the shadows or return to countries that are unstable and dangerous,” Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director of the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) said in a statement. McCarthy called Trump’s decision “reckless” and “inhumane.”

The decision on Monday to cancel TPS for some 195,000 Salvadorans is particularly cruel. Similar to the Nicaraguans, whose TPS was terminated in November, many of the Salvadoran immigrants came to the U.S. as young children— in some cases nearly two decades ago. The U.S. is the only country many of them have ever known.

Not only is Trump’s decision nasty, it’s also stupid. By ripping apart communities, families, and lives, the Trump administration will needlessly imperil the lives, safety and economic security of thousands of people who get deported to gang-ravaged El Salvador, increasing the emigration push factor.

“The hardline decision doesn’t accomplish anything beyond energizing Trump’s narrow political base,” says Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue. “It is largely self defeating and heartless, contrary to longstanding U.S. values and interest in Central American stability.”

The mass deportation of Salvadorans will also deliver a serious blow to El Salvador’s vulnerable economy, which leans heavily on the $4.5 billion in remittances sent home each year by family members living abroad.

“The economic hit will be double— not just a need for El Salvador to create additional jobs for returning citizens, but also a potential sharp reduction in remittances,” says Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas. “The U.S. economy will also suffer, particularly in construction and the service sector. Those Salvadorans who do not return will be forced into the underground economy, thus increasing the problem of illegal immigration overnight.”

The Salvadoran government estimates that upwards of 50% of Salvadorans with TPS could be eligible to apply for permanent residency in the U.S., requiring an organizational campaign of herculean proportions by El Salvador’s consulates across the U.S.

Still, that leaves some 100,000 Salvadorans without a Plan B legal alternative who will now face deportation after September 2019.

To put that number in perspective, 20,538 Salvadorans were removed from the U.S. in 2016, according to ICE. El Salvador—along with Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras— has long been a leading country of origin for immigrant removals from the U.S. Even so, deporting all the TPS overstays next year would represent an unthinkable five-fold increase in Salvadoran removals.

The last time El Salvador saw a wave of mass deportation on that scale that, it helped the MS-13 grow from a local California gang into the transnational monster that it is today. Similarly, the mass removal of Salvadorans would trigger a chain of events that would likely lead to increased emigration to the United States—one that Trump’s border wall posturing won’t be able to stop.

As with most things, Trump is tripping over his own ignorance and racism in an attempt to impose his myopic “America First” agenda. Once again, the president is confusing stupid with tough. He’s playing to the cheers of his “forgotten-man” base and making the United States a worse place in the process.</s>Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nearly 200,000 Salvadoreans in the US who were granted Temporary Protected Status now face uncertainty

Donald Trump's administration has decided to cancel permits that allow nearly 200,000 people from El Salvador to live and work in the US.

They were granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) after earthquakes rocked the Central American country in 2001.

Salvadoreans now have until 9 September 2019 to leave or face deportation, unless they find a legal way to stay.

The Trump administration has already removed TPS protection from tens of thousands of Haitians and Nicaraguans.

Protections for Salvadoreans were set to expire on Monday, after nearly two decades of holding the humanitarian status due to the impact of the natural disaster that killed more than 1,000 people.

The latest announcement comes four months after the government said it planned to scrap an Obama-era scheme, Daca (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), that protected young undocumented immigrants, mostly Latin Americans, from deportation.

Lawmakers in Congress have been given until March to decide on the fate of the 800,000 so-called Dreamers affected by the Daca decision.

What does it mean for Salvadoreans in US?

Their protection will not be terminated until 9 September 2019 "to allow for an orderly transition", the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement announcing the decision on Monday.

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What is temporary protected status - and why is El Salvador losing it?

"The original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes no longer exist," the agency said.

"Thus, under the applicable statute, the current TPS designation must be terminated."

Who will be most affected?

The move will end the protected status of nearly 200,000 Salvadoreans living across America, forcing them to face possible deportation.

More than 190,000 children born in the US to Salvadoreans with TPS will also be affected.

While the children themselves are US citizens thanks to the practice of granting citizenship to babies born on US soil, their parents will not automatically be allowed to stay and families could be broken up.

Salvadoreans with TPS are established in large numbers in California, Texas and around the US capital, Washington DC.

According to the Center for Migration Studies, they represent more than 135,000 households across the country, with a quarter of them home-owners:

88% part of the labour force

10% self-employed

10% married to US citizens

What is Temporary Protected Status?

The programme was created in 1990 and authorises immigrants from several countries to live and work in the US lawfully, regardless of whether they entered the country legally or not.

It is only granted to countries affected by armed conflict, environmental disaster, or epidemics.

Ten countries, making up over 300,000 US immigrants, have been granted TPS protections since it was first signed into law by President George Bush.

Special protection status for 59,000 Haitians and 5,300 Nicaraguans was terminated late last year, and also takes effect in 2019.

Salvadoreans are the largest group by far to receive TPS, after two earthquakes devastated communities the country in March 2001.

Over the next 15 years, the programme was re-authorised by US presidents several times.

What has reaction been?

Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, hailed Monday's decision as a "long overdue move".

"The idea that there should be a 'temporary status' that lasts for 19 years is ridiculous," he told BBC News.

He believed the TPS law should be scrapped and replaced with a process in which Congress would have to vote to re-authorise temporary immigration protections.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Demonstrations were held in Washington against Mr Trump's decision

Meanwhile, Salvadoreans with the TPS status criticised the decision.

"My life is here," Minda Hernández, a 48-year-old housekeeper from Long Island who left El Salvador 20 years ago, was quoted as saying by the AFP news agency.

"This is where my home is, where I pay my taxes. I am happy here - even if I work myself to death."

The Salvadorean government has been lobbying the US to extend protections for people from their country living in the US.

El Salvador's Foreign Minister Hugo Martínez said his government would work with the Trump administration to find a permanent solution for Salvadoreans working in the US.

Money earned and sent back to families in El Salvador also makes a valuable contribution to the country's economy, the Center for American Progress says. The think tank estimates that in 2015, remittances made up more than 15% of El Salvador's GDP.

Democrats in Congress have condemned the decision, with many criticising the move for ignoring the violence in El Salvador, which has one of the world's highest murder rates.

"Thousands of families will worry about being torn apart because of this callous and irrational decision," Washington DC Mayor Murial Bowser said.

Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto said it was "a poignant reminder that we have an anti-immigrant president who turns his back on hardworking families and insists on governing by fear and intimidation".

Consulates in the US are offering advice to Salvadoreans.</s>Tens of thousands of Marylanders from El Salvador living in the country under a Temporary Protected Status designation will have that protection revoked next year, the Trump administration will announce Monday.

The Department of Homeland Security will announce it is ending the designation Sept. 9, 2019, according to multiple sources briefed on the decision. Salvadorans are by far the largest group to benefit from the status, often granted when home countries are struck by natural disaster or war.

Nearly 437,000 foreign nationals are benefiting from Temporary Protected Status, or TPS. The 27-year-old program, approved by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by Republican President George H.W. Bush, shields eligible immigrants from deportation.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's decision on Salvadorans follows similar announcements for Nicaraguans and Haitians.

Maryland is home to the fourth-largest community of Salvadorans with TPS in the nation — some 20,000 people — according to the New York-based Center for Migration Studies. Most are concentrated in Montgomery and Prince George's counties.

Nationally, about 263,000 Salvadorans have benefited since 2001 –- following a devastating series of earthquakes – more than the other nine currently designated countries combined. Many have established lives and careers in the United States as the designation was extended for years.

Critics of TPS say the system is being abused. They ask why a decades-old earthquake or hurricane is being used to justify allowing people — many of whom came to the country illegally — to stay in the United States.

Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, said that by ending the status for Salvadorans the Trump administration was “saving” the program so it could be used for future emergencies.

“The past practice of allowing foreign nationals to remain in the United States long after an initial emergency in their home countries has ...undermined the integrity of the program and essentially made the ‘temporary’ protected status a front operation for backdoor permanent immigration,” said Beck, whose group supports limiting immigration.

The program applies to foreign nationals who are living in the United States on the date the Department of Homeland Security declares TPS for their country. Immigrants who arrive after the declaration are not eligible. Unlike asylum, TPS is intended to apply only temporarily. Those who benefit are ineligible for permanent residence or citizenship.

El Salvador, a nation of 6 million wedged between Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, ranks among the world’s most violent places. A civil war from 1979 to 1992, which the United States helped to fund with billions in military aid, weakened the country’s criminal justice system, allowing gangs to proliferate.

The Obama administration extended the TPS designation for El Salvador to March 2018. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security had to announce a decision this month.

“This decision is shameful, but sadly it’s not surprising,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland. These families work in our communities, open businesses in our state, and go to school with our children. They have lived here legally for decades and call America home.”</s>Nearly 200,000 Salvadorans who've had temporary permission to live in the United States for the past 17 years will have until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave the US or face deportation, the Trump administration announced Monday.

The Salvadorans become the latest group of foreigners to lose what's known as Temporary Protected Status after spending years in the United States because of natural disasters in their home countries. The Salvadorans were granted TPS after a pair of 2001 earthquakes slammed the country.

"Based on available information the secretary determined that the conditions supporting El Salvador's TPS designation on the basis of environmental disaster, specifically the devastation cause by major earthquakes in 2001, no longer exist," a senior Department of Homeland Security official said.



In recent weeks, the Department of Homeland Security also has announced an end to TPS for about 60,000 Haitians and 2,500 Nicaraguans. However, DHS postponed a decision on 57,000 Hondurans.

Salvadorans make up the largest group with TPS and have about 192,700 US-citizen children, many of whom are likely to be forced to leave with their parents to resettle in a country they've never lived in.

Last week Salvador Sánchez Cerén, the president of El Salvador, asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to once again extend TPS, arguing that even if the US decides to send Salvadorans back it would give the government time to prepare to receive its compatriots.

In making the decision to end TPS Nielsen looked at whether conditions specific to the pair of 2001 earthquakes had improved and whether El Salvador was prepared to take back the nearly 200,000 people because that's the reason for giving the protection in the first place, a senior DHS official said.

Gang violence plaguing the country was not a factor in deciding whether to end TPS. Once their protections run out in 2019, the Salvadorans will be eligible for deportation. The US State Department currently has a travel advisory for El Salvador citing "high rates of crime and violence."

The 18 months, officials said, was enough time for this group of Salvadorans to seek other ways of legalizing their status or prepare to go home, otherwise they face the possibility of being deported if they overstay.

"DHS will not exempt entire categories or exclude entire groups of people from immigration enforcement actions," the official said.</s>The Trump administration says it will end the temporary protected status that has allowed some 200,000 natives of El Salvador to live in the U.S. without fear of deportation for nearly 17 years, the Department of Homeland Security says.

In announcing the designation's end, DHS Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen also said she's extending it for another 18 months, to Sept. 9, 2019 — a delay that her agency says is to ensure "an orderly transition."

When asked whether the move would result in U.S. customs officials targeting Salvadorans who try to remain in the U.S. without documentation after September of 2019, an administration official on a briefing phone call said that the agency's top priority remains the deportation of criminals and people deemed dangerous to society. But he added that Homeland Security would not "exempt entire classes of people."

The move upends a status quo that has existed since 2001, when President George W. Bush extended temporary protected status to Salvadorans who were in the U.S., after major earthquakes devastated parts of El Salvador.

As NPR's Carrie Kahn reports, "The vast majority of [Salvadorans] that were here in the country living illegally at the time had fled in the 1980s and '90s, during the decades of the U.S.-backed civil war in the country and unrest there."

People who live in the U.S. under the TPS program have done so under a series of 18-month extensions that have rendered it semi-permanent — a condition that has been welcomed by immigrants and criticized by those who want to see a strict overhaul of U.S. border controls.

To maintain their work authorization, TPS immigrants pay hundreds of dollars in fees for permits every 18 months. The U.S. government says Salvadorans with TPS must register one more time if they want to keep working through the fall of 2019, but it added that it wasn't yet announcing the final re-registration period.

In a news release about its decision, Homeland Security said that Salvadorans should use the 18-month delay to either leave the U.S. or "seek an alternative lawful immigration status in the United States, if eligible."

The agency also called on Congress to act, saying that only a change to U.S. law would provide a "permanent solution" for people who have for years been living and working in the U.S.

"The 18-month delayed termination will allow Congress time to craft a potential legislative solution," DHS said.

The Trump administration's move quickly drew criticism from immigrants' rights and advocacy groups. While acknowledging a need for Congress to change U.S. immigration laws, Refugees International President Eric Schwartz said via a statement that it was "baffling and mean-spirited that the administration has sought to hold the fate of these people hostage to such action."

Another group unhappy with the decision is Amnesty International USA, whose Marselha Gonçalves Margerin, advocacy director for the Americas, called the TPS termination "a devastating betrayal for thousands of families who arrived at the United States seeking safety as well as their U.S. citizen children."

Margerin added, "If forced to return to El Salvador, mothers, fathers, and children could face extortion, kidnapping, coerced service to gangs, and sexual violence."

TPS immigrants' home countries have often lobbied to maintain the status, in part because it smooths the process both of finding work in the U.S. and of sending money back home.

In the case of El Salvador, the U.S. said on Monday that the problems brought by the earthquakes "no longer exist." But the country remains wracked by violence and poverty, and it has benefited from its citizens' ability to work in the U.S.

"Remittances are at an all-time high," Carrie reports. "Those are dollars coming back home from relatives abroad. That accounts for nearly a fifth of El Salvador's GDP. That's a huge loss to such a poor country."

When President Trump took office, a total of more than 300,000 immigrants were allowed to live in the U.S. legally under the TPS exception. Of that number, the majority were originally from El Salvador; the two other main nationalities with TPS status are Hondurans — some 57,000 of whom will learn their fate in July — and Haitians — about 46,000 of whom have already been told their TPS status will end.

Last week, Homeland Security said it would end TPS status for Nicaragua, which has some 2,500 citizens in the U.S. under the protective status.

Other countries whose citizens in the U.S. are protected under TPS rules include Nepal, Syria, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, and South Sudan.</s>Survivors of a earthquake in El Salvador stand in line for food on Feb. 14, 2001. On Monday, United States' officials ended the protected status for Salvadorans allowed into the US after earthquakes in 2001.

—Around 200,000 Salvadorans allowed to live in the United States since 2001 after earthquakes in El Salvador must leave the country in 2019, US officials said on Monday, marking the Trump administration's latest move to tighten immigration law enforcement.

Termination of the Salvadorans' temporary protected status will take effect Sept. 9, 2019, to give them time to leave or seek lawful residency, and for El Salvador to prepare for their return, officials said.

The decision to end TPS for Salvadorans is part of the administration's broader push to deport immigrants who are in the US illegally. The decision was heavily criticized by immigrant advocates who said it ignored violence in El Salvador, which has one of the world's highest murder rates.

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 US whose home countries have been affected by disasters. Administration officials have said TPS is supposed to provide a temporary haven for victims, not a permanent status in the US.

Taken together, the decisions by the Trump administration mean approximately 250,000 people who previously had permission to live and work in the US will, over the course of the next two years, lose those protections and be open to deportation if they choose to stay in the country.

Haitians and Nicaraguans will lose their protected status in 2019 and Hondurans could lose theirs later this year. South Sudanese immigrants' protected status was extended until May 2019.

Salvadorans are the largest group by far with temporary protected status. An estimated 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants have the protection, according to a November report by the Congressional Research Service. That is more than three times the number of people in the next largest group with the status, Hondurans. Salvadorans were granted the protections after a pair of earthquakes in 2001 that killed more than 1,150 people between them and left hundreds of thousands homeless.

Critics have complained the TPS program allows participants to repeatedly extend their stays in 6-month to 18-month increments in case of a natural disaster, civil strife, or other emergencies in their homelands.

This was reported by Reuters.</s>WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) - The Trump administration will announce on Monday it plans to end the Temporary Protected Status that has allowed 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants to remain in the United States, a U.S. Senate aide said.

Under the plan, the legal status will be extended until Sept. 9, 2019, the aide told Reuters. Salvadorans in the United States under the TPS program will have until that date to leave or obtain other lawful residency.

The Trump administration has faced a series of deadlines over the past year to decide whether to end the protections for immigrants in the United States whose home countries have been affected by disasters. Administration officials have said TPS is supposed to provide a temporary haven for victims, not a permanent status in the United States.

Haitians and Nicaraguans will lose their protected status in 2019 and Hondurans could lose theirs later this year. South Sudanese immigrants' protected status was extended until May 2019.

Salvadorans are the largest group by far with temporary protected status. An estimated 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants have the protections, according to a November report by the Congressional Research Service. That is more than three times the number of people in the next largest group with protected status, Hondurans.

Critics have complained the TPS program allows participants to repeatedly extend their stays in 6-month to 18-month increments in case of a natural disaster, civil strife or other emergencies in their homelands.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen recently met with El Salvador´s foreign minister and ambassador, and spoke by phone with the country´s president to discuss the issue.

A statement from the Department of Homeland Security was expected later on Monday. (Reporting by Warren Strobel and Yeganeh Torbati; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Andrew Hay)</s>The Trump administration will end temporary legal immigration status for 200,000 Salvadorans who have been living in the U.S. for nearly two decades, the Department of Homeland Security announced Monday.

The decision means that Salvadorans who currently have Temporary Protected Status (TPS) must return to their homeland by September 2019 or become undocumented immigrants if they choose to remain without legal protections.

Salvadorans were first granted TPS in 2001 following a pair of devastating earthquakes that killed nearly 1,000 people and destroyed more than 100,000 homes in the Central American country.

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama continued extending those protections every 18 months, arguing that the country had not fully recovered from those quakes and also suffered from raging drug cartel violence that made it impossible to return so many people to the unstable nation.

Ending TPS means that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen has changed course and concluded that conditions in El Salvador have improved enough for the Salvadorans to return home.

The decision follows months of lobbying from El Salvador's government, a bipartisan group of members of Congress, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, all of which believe Washington should come up with a way to allow Salvadorans to remain in the country.

The Salvadoran Embassy in Washington estimates that 97% of Salvadorans on TPS over the age of 24 are employed and paying taxes, and more than half own their own homes. Salvadorans on TPS have also given birth to 192,000 children, all U.S. citizens, according to a report from the Center for Migration Studies.

The move is sure to please immigration groups advocating for lower levels of immigration who have argued that the TPS program, created by Congress in 1990, was always meant to be a short-term fix but has been abused by repeated extensions.

The administration has been phasing out temporary protected status granted by Republican and Democratic administrations to 437,000 people from 10 countries who have suffered from armed conflicts, earthquakes and other natural disasters, according to the Congressional Research Service.

In November, Homeland Security announced it was ending TPS for roughly 59,000 Haitians living legally in the U.S. since a powerful earthquake in 2010 decimated the country. They must return home by July 2019.

The department also eliminated TPS status for 5,300 Nicaraguans that was first granted in 1999 following the destruction left by Hurricane Mitch. They must leave by January 2019.

And while the department extended TPS for 86,000 Hondurans affected by Mitch for six more months, the administration indicated that they may ultimately be eliminated from the program.</s>Salvadoran immigrants living in Delaware under Temporary Protected Status face deportation in 18 months after the Trump Administration announced Monday that it will remove El Salvador from a federal list of countries to which citizens cannot safely return.

The Department of Homeland Security similarly ended TPS for people from Haiti and Nicaragua in 2017. For hundreds of current Delaware residents, the decisions likely mean a forthcoming deportation order during the next two years.

Yet, many who have lived for decades in Delaware, establishing businesses and buying homes, may choose instead to stay here undocumented rather than return to the extreme violence in their homeland, said Bryant Garcia, the immigration program coordinator at La Esperanza in Georgetown.

"You have the potential for people who had a legal status, who were paying taxes, to now move into the shadows," Garcia said. "I understand that this was supposed to be temporary but the fact is, the U.S. government has sat on this for years, and years, to the point that people have started anew here."

While the Department of Homeland Security does not release "state-by-state breakdowns" for TPS recipients, Garcia estimated that the number is close to 1,000 in Delaware.

El Salvador, a diminutive country on a global scale, has had by far the most TPS recipients living in the United States. Salvadorans were given the status in 2001 following two devastating earthquakes, which killed nearly 1,000 people, and destroyed more than 100,000 homes.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen on Monday said disaster-related conditions from the earthquake no longer exist and therefore her agency is legally bound to end the program.

"Following the 2001 earthquake, El Salvador received a significant amount of international aid to assist in its recovery efforts, including millions of dollars dedicated to emergency and long-term assistance. Many reconstruction projects have now been completed," Nielsen said in a statement.

Yet previous administrations under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had noted that violence from drug traffickers was a factor in their decisions to extend the program.

In February, the State Department issued a warning to U.S. travelers in El Salvador, noting the country "has one of the highest homicide levels in the world and crimes such as extortion, assault and robbery are common."

Garcia said Salvadorans who had lived in the United States often are a "bigger target" for those crimes when returning to their home country.

"We do know of situations where people who have only been in the states for a year or two ... who have then been killed" after returning home, Garcia said.

When people from Haiti lost the Temporary Protected Status in November some decided to move to Canada rather than their home country, the poorest in the Western Hemisphere. The migration left chicken farms in Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore without needed employees, said Bill Satterfield, executive director of Delmarva Poultry Industry.

"One of the biggest challenges facing the Delmarva chicken industry is the recruitment and retention of qualified employees," Satterfield said in a statement. "The looming July 2019 expiration of Temporary Protected Status for some Haitian chicken company workers likely will result in more departures in the coming months."

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.

More: Trump may order 200,000 Salvadorans to leave U.S.

More: Trump administration to send Haiti earthquake victims home in 2019</s>The Trump administration said Monday it is ending special protections for Salvadoran immigrants, an action that could force nearly 200,000 to leave the U.S. by September 2019 or face deportation.

El Salvador is the fourth country whose citizens have lost Temporary Protected Status under President Donald Trump. Salvadorans have been, by far, the largest beneficiaries of the program, which provides humanitarian relief for foreigners whose countries are hit with natural disasters or other strife.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's decision, while not surprising, will send shivers through parts of Washington, Los Angeles, New York, Houston and other metropolitan areas that are home to large numbers of Salvadorans. They have enjoyed special protection since earthquakes struck the Central American country in 2001, and many have established deep roots in the U.S., starting families and businesses.

The action also produces a serious challenge for El Salvador, a country of 6.2 million people whose economy counts on money sent by wage earners in the U.S. Over the past decade, growing numbers of Salvadorans — many coming as families or unaccompanied children — have entered the United States illegally through Mexico, fleeing violence and poverty.

In September 2016, the Obama administration extended protections for 18 months, saying El Salvador suffered lingering harm from the 2001 earthquakes that killed more than 1,000 people and was temporarily unable to absorb such a large number of returning people.

Nielsen, who faced a Monday deadline on another extension, determined El Salvador has received significant international aid to recover from the earthquake and that homes, schools and hospitals there have been rebuilt. Salvadorans will have until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave the country or adjust their legal status.

"The substantial disruption of living conditions caused by the earthquake" no longer exists, the department said in a statement.

Homeland Security also said more than 39,000 Salvadorans have returned home from the U.S. in two years, demonstrating El Salvador's capacity to absorb people. It said the 18-month delay would give Congress time to develop a legislative change if it chooses, while also giving Salvadorans and their government time to prepare.

Democratic leaders and immigrant advocacy groups greeted the decision with resounding dismay, saying well-established families — many with U.S.-born children — will be separated and people will be forced to return to heavy violence in El Salvador.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called it "a heartbreaking blow to nearly a quarter of a million hard-working Salvadorans who are American in every way." Rep. Bennie Thompson, ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said it was "just the latest in a string of heartless, xenophobic actions from the Trump administration."

However, NumbersUSA, a group advocating immigration restrictions, called it an important step for the humanitarian program's credibility.

"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, the group's president.

El Salvador President Salvador Sanchez Ceren spoke by phone Friday with Nielsen to renew his plea to extend status for 190,000 Salvadorans and allow more time for Congress to deliver a long-term fix for them to stay in the U.S.

The country's top diplomat, Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez, said Monday's decision underscored a need for Congress to act before September 2019.

"We are convinced we can get legislation in the U.S. Congress before that date," he said.

The decision comes amid intensifying talks between the White House and Congress on an immigration package that may include protections for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants who came to the country as children and were temporarily shielded from deportation under an Obama-era program. Trump said in September that he was ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, but gave Congress until March to act.

The U.S. created Temporary Protected Status in 1990 to provide safe havens for people from countries affected by earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, war and other disasters, and it currently shields nearly 320,000 people from 10 countries.

The benefit, which includes work authorization, can be renewed up to 18 months at a time by the Homeland Security secretary. Critics say it has proved anything but temporary — with many beneficiaries staying years after the initial justification.

Nielsen said last week that short-term extensions are not the answer.

"Getting them to a permanent solution is a much better plan than having them live six months to 12 months to 18 months," she told the AP.

In November, Nielsen's predecessor, acting Secretary Elaine Duke, ended the protection for Haitians, requiring about 50,000 to leave or adjust their legal status by July 22, 2019, and for Nicaraguans, giving about 2,500 until Jan. 5, 2019. She delayed a decision affecting more than 50,000 Hondurans, leaving that decision to Nielsen.

Last year, the Trump administration extended status for South Sudan and ended it for Sudan. Other countries covered are Nepal, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.

Salvadoran immigrant Orlando Zepeda, who came to the U.S. in 1984 to flee civil war, said he wasn't surprised by Monday's decision given the administration's position on other countries. Still, that doesn't make it any easier for the 51-year-old Los Angeles-area man who works in building maintenance and has two American-born children.

"It's sad, because it's the same story of family separation from that time, and now history repeats itself with my children," Zepeda said in Spanish.

Associated Press writers Amy Taxin in Los Angeles and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report. Spagat reported from San Diego.
The Trump administration will, in 18 months, end the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for immigrants from El Salvador living in the U.S. under the TPS issued after a series of devastating earthquakes in 2001. The Department of Homeland Security estimates about 200,000 Salvadorans will be impacted.