Photo credit: Daily Mail
DHS said in a statement Wednesday that it will announce a decision on El Salvador “at the appropriate time” and that protections would remain in place until then.
The Associated Press reports that about 200,000 people from El Salvador have lived in the US since 2001 under TPS, which allows people already in the country to remain with work permits for renewable periods of up to 18 months if the Secretary of Homeland Security determines conditions are unsafe for return. They are eligible for work permits.
The administration has ended protections for more than a dozen countries.
During President Donald Trump’s second term, Homeland Security has ended TPS for more than 1 million people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria. In addition to El Salvador, only people from three other countries remain protected, with termination dates in October for Ukraine and Sudan, and November for Lebanon.
The Trump administration obtained a major victory when the Supreme Court ruled in June that Homeland Security acted within its authority by ending TPS for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. The impact of the decision extends far beyond Haitians and Syrians, potentially affecting nearly 1.3 million people from 17 countries on TPS.
Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar”, who has advocated for ending TPS, said Tuesday that the decision rests with Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
Once one of the most violent places in the world, El Salvador has become one of the safest countries in the Americas since Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele ordered mass arrests in 2022. In April 2025, the State Department upgraded El Salvador’s travel advisory to its highest level, citing a drop in violent crimes and murders.
