Confusion over protected status leaves employers and Salvadoran immigrants scrambling

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Set us as preferred Thousands of Salvadoran immigrants nationwide faced uncertainty after the federal government failed to decide by a Wednesday deadline whether to extend or terminate their longtime temporary protections against deportation.Those protections, known as Temporary Protected Status or TPS, allow immigrants to obtain work permits and by Thursday some Salvadorans had already been fired from their jobs.

Others who had been let go were reinstated after the Trump administration clarified that an announcement on TPS for Salvadorans would come “at the appropriate time” and that they would retain work authorization in the meantime.Employers also expressed uncertainty about whether the statement was enough to legally keep Salvadoran employees on their payroll.Those who lost their jobs worked across the U.S.

in construction, at hotels and as janitors.Some took the announcement that work authorizations remained in place — made late Wednesday by U.S.

Citizenship and Immigration Services — as a cause for hope, while others saw it as prolonged mental torture.There are 170,000 Salvadoran TPS holders, including 36,000 living in California.

Asked for further guidance on Thursday, Homeland Security sent a link to the USCIS website.Advocates with the National TPS Alliance distributed a letter including the administration’s announcement for TPS holders to share with their employers and stating that “any decision to terminate could not take effect for a minimum of 60 days.” The letter seemed to help, as advocates reported that some fired employees had been able to return to work.

Not everyone was reinstated.Jose Ramirez reported to his construction job in Santa Monica for the last time on Wednesday.The 63-year-old had been legally working in the U.S.

since 2001, when TPS was first extended to Salvadoran immigrants....