Ends protection for Salvadorans

THE LIVES of nearly 200,000 Salvadorians were sent into chaos after the Trump administration announced Monday it plans to end the special immigration status that has allowed them to livein the U.S. legally for years.

Salvadorans with temporary protected status were given until Sept. 9, 2019, to leave the country or face deportation.

“My parents both came to this country from El Salvador, pursuing the American Dream,” said Rodman Serrano, 23, from Brentwood, L.I.

“Thanks to their sacrifices I’ll be graduating from college this year,” he added, “but now my family is unprotected after Trump’s decision to end TPS. This is a nightmare!”

Serrano’s parents, and others from El Salvador, were granted that status after earthquakes in their home country killed 1,100 people and displaced more than 1 million in 2001.

On Monday, a Department of Homeland Security official told reporters the decision was made because the devastation tied to the quakes is no longer an issue.

“Damaged schools and hospitals have been reconstructed and repaired,” the official said. “Homes have been rebuilt and money has been provided for water and sanitation and to repair damaged roads and other infrastructure.”

Last year, the administration ended the same special immigration status for citizens of Haiti, Nicaragua and Honduras.

Immigration advocates say that suddenly losing those protections has filled immigrant families with anxiety and dread, wondering if they will be forced to separate from their loved ones.

“I’ve been building dreams for the future,” said Cristian Chavez Guevara, 37, who came to Houston as an undocumented immigrant in 2000 and obtained temporary protected status a year later.

Guevara, from El Salvador, works in the tech industry and is raising three children, including a 13-year-old cousin whose mother was deported years ago.

“She knows me as her father,” he said as his voice cracked during a conference call with reporters. “What am I going to do now? How can I tell them that I have to go?”

Guevara and others fear returning, citing gang violence prevalent in the country.

“Organized crime controls the streets, the neighborhoods,” he said.

There are an estimated 16,000 Salvadorans living in New York. “This is not a just or fair policy,” said Anu Joshi, director of immigration policy at the New York Immigration Coalition. “This is not a policy decision that honors families.”