Salvadorans sent packing by Trump

DONALD Trump has declined to renew the temporary protected status of Salvadoran immigrants to the US, giving an estimated 263,000 people less than two years to leave the country or be deported.

The TPS designation has allowed immigrants from El Salvador to live and work in the US since 2001, when two earthquakes crippled much of the Central American nation.

Immigrants will have until September 2019 to leave the country or find other means of lawful residency, according to multiple news reports.

In a letter to Congress, Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said conditions in El Salvador had improved significantly since 2001, rendering the original justification for the protected status void.

Congress has 18 months to pass legislation protecting Salvadoran immigrants or their legal status will be revoked, a letter first seen by The

Washington Post says. Every president since George W Bush has extended the protected status of Salvadorans. More than half of these immigrants have lived in the US for 20 years or more, according to the Centre for Migration Studies, and 10 per cent are married to a legal resident.

Immigrant Legal Resource Centre consultant Amanda Baran called the decision “reckless and heartless”.

“El Salvador is one of the world’s most dangerous countries and will be unable to absorb the return of these thousands of people whose lives are inextricably intertwined with those of ours here in the US,” she said.