Trump Admin Fails to Update TPS Info for Salvadorans. Thousands Face Loss of Jobs, Benefits

By Reporte Hispano

Photo: Fibonacci Blue. Published via Flickr under CC License 2.0.

More than 100 immigrant rights organizations urged the Trump Administration to address a discrepancy regarding work permits for Salvadorans protected under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which is currently in effect until September.

The organizations, under the umbrella of Alianza América and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network (CLINIC), sent a letter to newly appointed Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin and the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), Joseph B. Edlow, requesting corrective action on the expiration date for Employment Authorization Documents (EADs) announced on their official websites.

Specifically, the organizations’ complaint points to the lack of updates to USCIS databases used by other agencies to verify the eligibility of TPS holders.

The Trump administration extended TPS for Salvadorans last year until September 9, 2026, allowing them to have work permits until that date. However, all websites related to the benefit for Salvadorans indicate March 9, 2026, as the expiration date of the EADs.

According to data from The National Immigration Forum, approximately 170,000 Salvadorans have been protected by TPS since 2001.

The organizations warned that in less than three weeks, “hundreds of Salvadoran workers with TPS have lost their jobs and many more will lose them.” Furthermore, they have lost or will lose seniority benefits accrued over decades with the same employer, including vacation time, bonuses, and salary increases.

“It is unacceptable that employers, workers, and communities are being impacted by the inefficiency and poor performance of federal agencies,” the advocates said in a statement.

The immigrant advocates also urged USCIS to address the backlog in processing I-821 and I-765 applications affecting more than 100,000 TPS beneficiaries from El Salvador.

This story was first published in Spanish by Reporte Hispano, a Spanish-language news and information platform based in Princeton, New Jersy