Salvadoran President Wants TPS Extended for Salvadorans in U.S.

By Jason Peña on October 2, 2019

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele met privately yesterday in Washington, D.C., with members of an organization lobbying for permanent residency for illegal immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).

The group is reported to have included about 17 members of the National TPS Alliance, including members from Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, New York, Massachusetts, and California – states with large numbers of Salvadorans, who account for the majority of people with TPS.

After the meeting, Jose Palma, National TPS Alliance coordinator, said of Bukele, "He promised to help cover logistics expenses so that the TPS National Alliance can do its job, have meetings to continue moving forward on our path to permanent residence, and also promised to manage an extension of the TPS so that we can help to unite and breathe to keep fighting."

President Bukele has been a vocal proponent for TPS for the nearly 200,000 of his countrymen who have it, asking President Trump during a meeting last week to extend the status. The "temporary" reprieve from deportation (including the issuance of work permits) was originally granted in 2001 to Salvadoran illegals present in the U.S. when earthquakes struck their home country. It is unknown whether the two leaders reached a deal to extend TPS for Salvadorans at their meeting last week.