The legal status of about 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants in the United States remained uncertain on Wednesday as the Trump administration approached a deadline to decide whether to terminate their Temporary Protected Status.
The protections were due to expire on Wednesday, although the law does not specify an exact time for their expiration. If the Department of Homeland Security takes no action, the protections are automatically extended for another six months.
A similar situation occurred in May when the protections for about 11,000 Lebanese nationals were automatically extended, allowing them to remain and work in the US for another 180 days.
DHS said on Wednesday that it would announce its decision regarding El Salvador “at the appropriate time” and confirmed that the protections would remain in effect until then.
About 200,000 Salvadorans have been living in the US under TPS since 2001. The programme allows eligible people already in the country to remain and obtain work permits for renewable periods of up to 18 months when the Homeland Security secretary determines that conditions in their home country are unsafe for their return.
The Trump administration has already moved to terminate TPS protections for more than one million people from 13 countries during the President’s second term.
Those affected include nationals from Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria. Apart from El Salvador, TPS remains in place for nationals of three other countries, with protections scheduled to end in October for Ukraine and Sudan and in November for Lebanon.
The administration secured a significant legal victory in June when the US Supreme Court ruled that Homeland Security had acted within its authority in ending TPS for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians.
The ruling could have wider implications for the nearly 1.3 million people from 17 countries who currently benefit from the programme.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar and a supporter of ending TPS, said on Tuesday that the final decision rested with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
“If it expires, it’s up to the secretary,” Homan said when asked about TPS. “Temporary protected status means temporary. Let’s face it, El Salvador is a much safer country than it’s ever been now with a new president up there.”
TPS Created In 1990
Congress established Temporary Protected Status in 1990 to shield people from deportation to countries experiencing natural disasters, armed conflict or civil unrest.
El Salvador was granted TPS following two devastating earthquakes in 2001 that left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Before leaving office, former President Joe Biden extended the designation for another 18 months, taking it through September 9, 2026.
El Salvador’s Close Ties With Trump
El Salvador, once considered one of the world’s most violent countries, has recorded a major reduction in violent crime since President Nayib Bukele launched a mass arrest campaign in 2022.
The US State Department upgraded its travel advisory for El Salvador to its highest level in April 2025, citing the decline in violent crime and murders.
Bukele has also supported Trump’s immigration policies and allowed El Salvador to receive deportees from the US, with some held at the country’s high-security mega-prison, known as CECOT.
Human rights organisations and advocates, however, have accused the Salvadoran authorities of carrying out arbitrary arrests and alleged cases of torture and enforced disappearances within the prison system.
Trump hosted Bukele at the White House in April 2025 and invited him to join a military coalition targeting drug trafficking and organised crime. The two leaders met again in Washington in July 2026, although Bukele has not publicly disclosed whether he asked the Trump administration to extend TPS for Salvadorans.
During Trump’s first administration in 2019, Bukele appealed for an extension of the protection. TPS ultimately remained in place because of ongoing legal challenges.
The fate of the programme is also significant for El Salvador’s economy. Salvadorans living in the US sent about $9.9bn in remittances to their home country last year, equivalent to roughly 24 per cent of El Salvador’s gross domestic product.
