MIAMI — A deadline for the Trump administration to decide on legal protections for about 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador passed without any public announcement, raising hopes among some that it may be extended for six months.
The Department of Homeland Security has been quiet about its plans, saying in a statement Wednesday it would make an announcement "at an appropriate time" and that Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador would stay in effect until then. Its silence sent attorneys and advocates scrambling to explain what might happen next.
Under immigration law, temporary status is automatically extended for six months if the government takes no action. But some attorneys cautioned that the administration could take action without making a public statement or that it could announce a decision in the near future.
Still, it gave a short reprieve to Salvadoran immigrants and raised expectations that they could be spared, unlike hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have seen TPS end since President Donald Trump again took office last year. TPS allows people already in the country to remain, with work permits, for renewable periods of up to 18 months, if the homeland security secretary determines conditions are unsafe for their return.
In May, protections were automatically extended for six months for about 11,000 Lebanese.
Temporary Protected Status for El Salvador was scheduled to expire Wednesday, which came and went without any public statements on key Homeland Security websites or social media accounts about whether it would end or be renewed. No updates were posted by early Thursday.
The administration has ended protections for more than a dozen countries
In Trump’s second term, Homeland Security has ended TPS for more than 1 million people from more than a dozen countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria. About 103,000 people, from Ukraine, Sudan and Lebanon, remain in the U.S. under TPS.
The Trump administration notched a major victory when the Supreme Court ruled in June that it acted within its authority by ending TPS for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians.
Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar” who has advocated for ending TPS, said Tuesday that the decision rests with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
“If it expires, it’s up to the secretary,” Homan said. “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.”
Congress created temporary protections in 1990
TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife.
It was granted to El Salvador following two devastating 2001 earthquakes that left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Just before leaving office, President Joe Biden extended it for El Salvador for 18 months to Sept. 9, 2026.
El Salvador has been a Trump ally
El Salvador, once one of the most violent places in the world, has become one of the safest countries in the Americas since Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele ordered mass arrests in 2022.
Bukele has been an ally of Trump's policy of mass deportations and was one of the first countries to receive deportees, holding them in a mega prison known as CECOT. The two men have met twice in Washington since last April.
Human rights groups and advocates have denounced mass and arbitrary arrests, torture, and disappearances in the Central American nation’s prison system.
Salvadorans in the U.S. sent $9.9 billion in remittances to El Salvador last year, representing 24% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to El Salvador’s central bank.
In 2019, during the first Trump administration, Bukele asked Trump to extend TPS. Bukele has not said publicly if he has requested another extension.
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Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed to this report.
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