Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled in Mullin v. Doe that the Trump administration could end Temporary Protected Status, known as TPS, for immigrants from countries facing humanitarian crises. The decision threw thousands of people who had legal permission to live and work in the U.S. into upheaval.

Hundreds of Haitians have since been deported to a country marked by violence and political instability, despite a State Department advisory stating, “Do not travel.” Haitian TPS holders have also faced ICE ankle monitors, arrests, detention, and deportation during the Trump administration.

Congress established TPS through the Immigration Act of 1990, providing eligible nationals from designated countries with work permits and protection from deportation. The Department of Homeland Security can renew protections for periods of up to 18 months and extend them indefinitely.

As of last March, more than one million people held TPS in the U.S., with immigrants from Venezuela, Haiti, and El Salvador making up the majority. But El Salvador stands apart because President Nayib Bukele has become a firm Trump administration ally.

Protections for Salvadorans were scheduled to expire on September 9, yet the Trump administration issued no official decision. Under the statute, that silence automatically extended protections for six months.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services posted an alert saying, “An announcement on El Salvador’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time. Until such announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection including work authorization.”

No other information was provided, and the Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment from The American Prospect. The Mullin decision leaves the president with authority over TPS decisions and offers few avenues to challenge the administration’s silence.

Trump has argued that TPS is “just that, temporary,” while his administration has moved to end designations for most countries covered by the program. Recent reporting from Politico found that the White House stopped the Department of Homeland Security from ending El Salvador’s designation.

Bukele has accepted and imprisoned detainees for the Trump administration and agreed to other favors. Noah Bullock, executive director of the El Salvador based human rights organization Cristosal, said ending TPS could politically damage Bukele as he seeks to present an appearance of legitimacy around an autocratic electoral process.

“I think that’s what’s transpiring is some face-saving on both sides. I think Trump couldn’t outright renew TPS, but in canceling it outright, he would politically hurt one of his principal allies in the region,” Bullock contended.

El Salvador received its TPS designation in 2001 after two devastating earthquakes killed and displaced hundreds. Many Salvadorans who obtained protection had been in the U.S. since the 1990s after seeking refuge from a civil war.

Around 200,000 Salvadorans currently hold TPS. The National TPS Alliance and fwd.us estimate that they contribute $5.4 billion to the U.S. economy annually, while remittances from Salvadoran immigrants account for 25% of El Salvador’s gross domestic product, according to the World Bank.

In 2022, Bukele’s government declared a state of emergency after an increase in violent gang crime. The measure permitted warrantless arrests and fueled mass incarceration, with nearly 2% of El Salvador’s population detained and thousands held at the Center for Terrorism Confinement, known as CECOT.

Shortly after Trump began his second term, approximately 250 Venezuelans were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador and immediately imprisoned at CECOT. Human Rights Watch and other organizations have reported systemic human rights violations inside the prison, including torture.

Bukele’s government has also conducted mass trials in which hundreds of defendants are accused and convicted of the same crime, often receiving sentences lasting decades. It has removed checks on executive authority, abolished presidential term limits, and repeatedly targeted journalists, activists, and human rights defenders.

The White House’s decision to leave TPS in place effectively acknowledges that returning to El Salvador remains dangerous, even as the administration praises Bukele’s crackdown. Trump has also paid El Salvador to imprison Venezuelan deportees, while Bukele has allowed the U.S. military to use the country as a site for operations against alleged narcotics traffickers in the Caribbean.

Even an official extension would leave Salvadoran TPS holders facing uncertainty under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Employment Authorization Documents are now valid for only one year or until a TPS designation expires, and the law does not account for an automatic extension of that designation.

TPS offers no direct route to another legal status, while obtaining a green card or citizenship is separate, expensive, and lengthy. After decades in the U.S., Salvadoran TPS holders now face confusion about their jobs, their legal status, and whether to leave voluntarily or remain trapped in limbo.