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Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipient Patty has had her status steadily renewed since two earthquakes devastated her native El Salvador, but now “the prospect of returning … raises only fear and anxiety,” following the Trump administration announcing the end of protections for 200,000 Salvadorans by 2019:
Since 2001, the country has become one of the most dangerous in the world. When I asked Patty if she had ever thought about taking her sons on even a trip to El Salvador, she said, “With kids like mine? They’d have to cut their hair. They’d have to change the shoes they wear, and to fix their clothes.” She was referring to Salvadoran gangs, who police a strict dress code—anyone wearing the wrong thing can become a target, especially those with American habits. “My sons speak English more than Spanish, too,” she said. “There’s a chance they’d be kidnapped if I took them back. I don’t even know who I can trust over there.”
Like Patty, thousands of TPS recipients who initially received protections felt relief after being given a second chance at life in the U.S., starting families, opening businesses, earning college degrees, and buying homes. But following Trump’s heartless decision, they worry they’ll lose everything unless Congress gives them a way to legalize their status. Otherwise, their families could get torn apart—or altogether deported:
“I’m confused, I’m hurt, I’m angry,” Patty told me. “We’re going to lose so much. I came here to learn and to work. I have kids, and I don’t want to leave.” Patty separated from her husband a few years ago, and the younger of her two boys, who is thirteen, has autism and attends a school for special-needs students. “My older son”—who is seventeen—“said to me, ‘Mom, don’t worry. We’ll figure something out,’ ” she said. They plan to hire a lawyer to see if there’s any way Patty can stay. She hasn’t been back to El Salvador since she left, two decades ago.
When 2019 comes around and Congress still hasn’t instituted a legalization plan for TPS recipients, many may chose to go underground rather than be deported to El Salvador, which has one of the highest murder rates in the world. This is a real crisis, one that has left families that are American in every way living in uncertainty, fear, and limbo. “The only people I know there would be the people I went to elementary school with,” said Patty, “but I’ve never seen them since I was a little kid.”