El Salvador temporary protected status set to end Sept. 9, thousands in NV affected

Thousands of people from El Salvador living in Nevada could face deportation if the Trump administration decides not to extend their protected status next week.

Temporary protected status (TPS) for El Salvador is scheduled to end on Sept. 9, ending the longest-running TPS designation in U.S. history. 

Nevada is home to about 6,000 TPS recipients, the majority of whom are Salvadoran nationals who face the loss of work authorization and deportation protection.

El Salvador was first designated for TPS in 2001, when President George W. Bush extended temporary protected status to Salvadorans living in the U.S. after major earthquakes devastated parts of El Salvador. The designation has since been extended repeatedly over the years.

Salvadoran TPS holders have built careers, purchased homes, and raised children after more than two decades living in the United States. 

Jose, a bartender on the Las Vegas Strip and a member of the Culinary Union, is one of the thousands of Salvadorian nationals living in Nevada under temporary protected status. He now faces uncertainty about his status after living in the U.S. for 25 years. 

“I appreciate the opportunity this country gave me, but now that same opportunity is being taken away,” said Jose, who asked that his real name not be used out of fear of being targeted for detention or deportation. 

If he loses his work permit, Jose fears being left without a job and unable to cover his mortgage, utilities, food and other expenses. His wife works, but they both calculated that her income would not be enough to maintain their current payments, especially as the cost of living rises. 

“The United States has become my country because I’ve lived most of my life here, it’s where I raised my family, and I don’t see a future anywhere  else,” Jose said. 

In August, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services notified Salvadorans that their temporary protected status would expire Sept. 9. But immigration experts say federal law requires the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to decide whether a country still qualifies for a TPS designation at least 60 days before it expires.

That means for the termination to take effect Sept. 9, the administration would have had to publish a notice in the Federal Register in July, which it did not. 

As of Thursday, DHS had not announced whether the designation will be extended or terminated, leaving many Salvadoran families in Nevada uncertain about what comes next. 

If no determination is made by the statutory deadline, the protections automatically extend for six months under federal law. 

Jose said there is little information about what will happen next for Salvadorians awaiting a determination, which has frustrated him as he tries to navigate his next steps.

“I got a letter from human resources asking for documentation from immigration, but I don’t have anything and I don’t even know what’s going to happen, nobody knows,” Jose said. “All I know is that I’m going to lose my job. I’m going to be unemployed.”

Automatic extensions have come late in the game in the past. In May, the Trump administration did not announce Lebanon’s automatic TPS extension in the Federal Register until two days after it was set to expire. 

However, the Trump administration has ended temporary protected status for more than a dozen countries since President Donald Trump took office in 2025. Temporary protected status was most recently terminated for Haitians, Ethiopians and Syrians in August following a Supreme Court ruling that DHS has broad authority to eliminate TPS.

Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge called the Trump administration’s move to remove TPS status from Salvadorians “misguided,” adding that it will have deep impacts on Nevada’s economy and members of his union. 

“We have thousands of TPS members that are Culinary union members. Many of them, like our Salvadorian brothers and sisters, have been here for decades and have children, grown kids. They have homes. They pay taxes, and they’re critical to our economy here in Las Vegas,” Pappageorge said, during a press conference Wednesday. 

The press event was held by Nevada’s U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, who urged the Trump Administration to extend TPS for Salvadorians. 

“The president can do the right thing for our country ahead of this September 9th deadline. He and his administration must extend TPS for Salvadorians,” said Cortez Masto.

“Here in Nevada, we have more than 5,800 TPS holders, most of whom are Salvadorans, and they are critical to our hospitality industry and our construction industry. Salvadorian TPS holders helped build Las Vegas as we know it, and they work in nearly every hotel on the Strip,” Cortez Masto continued. 

Last year, Cortez Masto and 28 other Democratic senators introduced the Safe Environment from Countries Under Repression and Emergency (SECURE) Act, which would provide qualified TPS recipients a path to legal permanent residency.

“I would ask for a year or two years for that extension, so that our TPS recipients can stay here, and we can help them work toward a long-term path to permanent citizenship,” Cortez Masto said.