Some 200,000 Salvadorean nationals living in the US for at least 17 years face deportation after their special residency status was revoked on Monday.
The US government, on Monday, said it was cancelling Salvadoreans’ temporary protection status that allowed them to live in the US after devastating earthquakes in 2001 in their native country.
Their protected status was renewed several times in following years.
In a statement on Monday, Kirtjen Nielsen, US Homeland security secretary, said she had concluded conditions in El Salvador had improved “so, the ongoing protection status is no longer justified”.
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The Salvadorean nationals have until September 2019 to leave the US or find other legal means of remaining in the country.
The department cited the repatriation of more than 39,000 people to El Salvador in the last two years as proof that the country’s “temporary inability” to bring back citizens no longer applies.
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