Salvadoran immigrants with Temporary Protected Status say even though the Department of Homeland Security is letting them stay for now, the government has let their work permits expire, meaning they can no longer legally work in the United States.
The TPS designation expires Wednesday but the statute does not give a specific time for when that happens. If DHS takes no action, protections are automatically extended for six months.
This rare reprieve happened in May, when the protections were automatically extended to about 11,000 Lebanese, allowing them to stay and work in the U.S. for another 180 days.
In a statement provided to ABC News, the Department of Homeland Security said: "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."
However, immigration attorneys said the protection does not necessarily mean TPS holders can continue working legally.
"Their work permits expired today, which puts them in a very difficult situation. It puts their employment at risk without any sort of extension of their work authorization," said Julie Mitchell, an immigration attorney with the Central American Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that provides legal assistance to immigrants.
Mitchell said that although TPS is slated to expire, Salvadorans are not immediately vulnerable to deportation because U.S. law requires a 60-day notice. She said the more immediate concern is the expiration of work permits, which do not require advance notice for expiration and are necessary for legal employment.
Salvadorans who have relied on TPS to legally live and work in the United States now face uncertainty about what comes next.
Lorena Zepeza, a Salvadoran TPS holder, said her family has built a life in the United States and worries about the financial impact of losing work authorization.
"We make a family here, we buy our house, we have a house. What's going to happen with the mortgage?" Zepeza said.
For TPS holders such as Zepeza, the loss of employment could make it difficult to cover household expenses and educational costs including her daughter's tuition.
"She is in the third year of university. She depends (on us) for everything, from me and my husband and after tomorrow, I don't have a job," Zepeza said.
About 200,000 people from El Salvador have lived in the U.S. under TPS since 2001. The program allows people already in the country to remain and work legally in renewable periods of up to 18 months if the homeland security secretary determines conditions in their home country are unsafe for return.
The administration has ended protections for more than a dozen countries
During President Donald Trump's second term, Homeland Security has ended TPS for more than 1 million people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria. In addition to El Salvador, only people from three other countries remain protected with termination dates in October for Ukraine and Sudan, and November for Lebanon.
The Trump administration obtained a major victory when the Supreme Court ruled in June that Homeland Security acted within its authority by ending TPS for about 350,000 Haitians and 6,000 Syrians. The impact of the decision extends far beyond Haitians and Syrians, potentially affecting nearly 1.3 million people from 17 countries on TPS.
Tom Homan, Trump's "border czar" who has advocated for ending TPS, said Tuesday that the decision rests with the Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
"If it expires, it's up to the secretary," Homan said when asked about TPS. "Temporary protected status means temporary. Let's face it, El Salvador is a much safer country than it's ever been now with a new president up there."
Congress created temporary protections in 1990
TPS was created by Congress in 1990 to prevent deportations to countries suffering from natural disasters or civil strife.
It was granted to El Salvador following two devastating 2001 earthquakes that left hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Just before leaving office, President Joe Biden extended TPS for El Salvador for 18 months to Sept. 9, 2026.
El Salvador has been a Trump ally
Once one of the most violent places in the world, El Salvador has become one of the safest countries in the Americas since Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele ordered mass arrests in 2022. In April 2025, the State Department upgraded El Salvador's travel advisory to its highest level, citing a drop in violent crimes and murders.
Bukele has been an ally of Trump's policy of mass deportations. El Salvador was one of the first countries to receive deportees and held them at a mega prison also known as CECOT.
Human rights groups and advocates have denounced mass and arbitrary arrests, torture, and disappearances in the Central American nation's prison system.
Trump received Bukele at the White House in April 2025 and invited him to participate in a military coalition to fight against drug trafficking and organized crime. In July 2026, Trump and Bukele met again in Washington. The Salvadoran president has not publicly stated whether he requested an extension of TPS from the Trump administration.
In 2019, during the first Trump administration, Bukele asked Trump to extend TPS. It remained because there were lawsuits.
Salvadorans in the U.S. sent $9.9 billion in remittances to El Salvador last year, representing 24% of the country's gross domestic product, according to El Salvador's central bank.
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Associated Press writer Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed to this report.