Trump is kicking out 200,000 Salvadorans who’ve lived here legally for decades

The Trump administration announced Monday it will cancel the temporary residency permits for over 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador, many of whom have been living in the U.S. for decades. The move, one of the most significant steps in the Trump’s administration’s year-long efforts to drastically curb immigration, gives them 18 months to either leave the country or face deportation.

The Salvadoran immigrants entered the United States following earthquakes in 2001, and were allowed to stay after being awarded Temporary Protected Status, or TPS — a program that’s come under fire during Trump’s presidency. Their TPS designation is now set to expire on Sept. 9, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement released Monday.

The department cast the 18-month window as both a chance to allow immigrants to organize an orderly departure — and also a chance for Congress to pass a law granting the Salvadorans a more permanent status.

“The 18-month delayed termination will allow Congress time to craft a potential legislative solution,” the department statement said. “Only Congress can legislate a permanent solution addressing the lack of an enduring lawful immigration status of those currently protected by TPS who have lived and worked in the United States for many years.”

Critics of Trump’s policy have warned that those being sent back from the United States face danger returning to El Salvador, a country where gang violence has made the murder rate 15 times what it is in the United States.

In February, for example, the State Department itself warned U.S. citizens from visiting El Salvador “due to the high rates of crime and violence.”

Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, was intended to prevent foreign nationals in the U.S. from being deported when a natural disaster or civil war broke out in their home countries. But in some cases — such as El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua — the rule has allowed people to stay and work in the U.S. legally for decades, long after the initial crisis underlying their TPS designation ended.