This week, the Secretary of Homeland Security announced the decision to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 262,500 Salvadorans living in the United States. TPS designation will end for El Salvador in September 2019. In the past four months, the Trump Administration has also ended TPS protections for Hondurans, Nicaraguans, and Haitians, putting the lives of thousands of immigrant families and youth in jeopardy.

Advocates for Youth is deeply troubled by and condemns this decision, which will ultimately upend the lives of thousands of immigrant families, most of whom have been living, working and attending school in this country for decades. The Department of Homeland Security is simply carrying out this Administration’s anti-immigrant and xenophobic agenda and will, no doubt, continue to end TPS protections for additional countries in the coming months. The United States gave protections to thousands of people, and now this Administration intends to just take them away.

“We hold firm in working toward justice for immigrant communities,” said Diana Rhodes, Advocates for Youth’s Director of Public Policy. “We must stand with young people as they work to ensure immigrants are treated with respect and prevent violations of their rights. We must resist the violent and hate-filled war on immigration this President, this Administration, this Congress, and far too many other leaders are perpetuating.”