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After a whirlwind, anxiety-ridden month, over 170,000 Salvadorans who had been granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for the past 25 years learned yesterday that the Trump administration walked back its threat to end their protections. For now.
The USCIS made an official announcement on August 12th, stating that Salvadorans would lose their TPS, and related benefits on September 9, 2026.
That was yesterday.
The conversations on social media all day revolved on hopes that a provision of the federal law on TPS for Salvadorans would kick in and automatically extend protections for six months if the DHS didn’t issue a decision to extend TPS on its own.
However, after reviewing court cases for other groups who lost their TPS, I noticed that the six-month extension never really came into play. Court cases may have bought a little time, but the Supreme Court and/or the 9th Circuit of Appeals have consistently ruled in favor of DHS to end TPS for targeted groups in the past.
In a surprising turn of events, instead of letting TPS expire for Salvadorans, the USCIS posted an uncharacteristic two sentence alert:
“An announcement on El Salvador’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time. Until such announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection including work authorization.”
There’s no clear indication as to why the Trump administration has decided to wait on this decision, in clear contrast to its usually aggressive and cold approach of removing TPS from more than 1.3 million people, including Venezuelans, Haitians, Ethiopians, and more, from a total of 17 countries. All of whom have had their TPS abruptly canceled.
However, there is plenty of speculation that Trump’s relationship with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, who Trump admires and considers an ally in his deportation endeavors, may have something to do with it. The New York Times, as with others, at least felt it was important enough to mention it in its reporting.
These are folks who have built lives, families, homes, and worked here, contributing to the life, culture, and economy of this nation. In the Greater Los Angeles Area alone, more than 450,000 Salvadorans call this area home, and have their own unofficial Salvadoran Corridor.
Salvadorans would become the third-largest group to lose their TPS, 170,125 of them across the country, to be exact, coming in ahead of 101,150 Ukrainians, and behind 330,735 Haitians and 605,015 Venezuelans.
California has the fourth-largest population with 79,320 people with Temporary Protected Status, just behind New York and Texas. Florida leads with a staggering 403,965 TPS holders.
Questions and anxiety, however, still remain for these people and their families. When will the next announcement come? Will there be another announcement and, if so, will TPS stay or expire? Will their future be at home in the U.S. or back in El Salvador where they could end up in the notorious CECOT prison, as some previous deportees have, or have to face the same threats they escaped from to the U.S. Even worse, will they find themselves in a third country like the Central African Republic with other deportees.
Every option ahead of them now is their worst nightmare come to life.
~ Memo Torres
ICE WATCH
Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) Field Office, an operational arm of ICE, posted just outside of its doors that detainees are being transferred from its B18 ICE detainee holding basement to the Santa Ana ERO office, located at the Santa Ana Federal Building.
The flyer states that the temporary transfer was due to a “planned protest” and that detainees would be transferred from September 6 to September 7, right on Labor Day. L.A. TACO reported on a similar transfer that was conducted on July 17 of this year, when a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told L.A. TACO that they were monitoring protests planned for July 17 and 18 in Downtown Los Angeles.
The flyer posted outside of B18 on Labor Day provided a number to the Santa Ana ERO office. L.A. TACO called the number and asked to be connected with any officer handling media relations. We were transferred to an unnamed person who stated that they were unaware of any transfer, and subsequently stated that they cannot confirm nor deny that a transfer occurred. The person we were transferred to refused to identify themselves, refused to state their name and role at the facility, and hung up when asked.
L.A. TACO reached out to ICE asking if they can confirm the transfer, asked what policy allows for a large transfer to occur, how many detainees were transferred, and if lawyers and family members were notified
”ICE posted the notice as a courtesy to detainees’ families and legal representatives," an ICE spokesperson responded. “To protect officer safety, detainees safety and the integrity of law enforcement operations, ICE does not discuss detainee movements, transfer details, detainee counts or operational logistics. ICE remains committed to ensuring detainees have access to legal counsel and to communicating appropriate information through established channels.”
According to reporting by the Santanero after the July 17 transfer, there are no visitation rights at the Santa Ana Federal Building. Massive transfers such as these make it difficult for families to contact and see their loved ones while they’re in temporary custody of Los Angeles ERO before being processed into a detention center.
The B18 holding basement in downtown Los Angeles is over an hour drive away from the Santa Ana Federal Building, and the flyer itself does not state that there are no visitation rights at the Santa Ana ERO office.
B18 is a temporary holding cell, meant to hold detainees for only three days as of last year in June. Detainees will typically be processed afterward into one of the high desert ICE detention centers, like the Desert View Annex or the Adelanto ICE Processing Center. These temporary holding rooms have different standards than detention centers and are not required to have beds or toilets.
As a transfer can increase the stress of a detainee, it also increases the difficulty in one’s family being able to locate where a loved one is to speak with them as it can take over 24 hours for the ICE detainee locator to update someone’s whereabouts.
~ Izzy Ramirez
ICYMI ON L.A. TACO:
IN OTHER ICE-RELATED NEWS
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- New immigration court tactic leads to huge lines and chaos in Miami ~NPR
- 'Hidden tribunals': Immigration court due process in tumult with new locations ~ NPR
