Nearly 200,000 people from El Salvador may be forced to leave the US after the Trump administration decided to cancel their permits.
They have been granted Temporary Protected Status (TPS) since earthquakes struck the Central American country in 2001, with many starting families and businesses in their adopted home.
But Salvadoreans now have to leave before September 2019 or face deportation, unless they find a legal way to stay in the US.
El Salvador is the fourth country whose citizens have lost TPS under President Donald Trump after Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan.
There are fears the move could put significant pressure on the country’s economy which relies on money sent back by wage-earners in the US.
In September 2016,Barack Obama’s administration extended the protections for 18 months, saying El Salvador suffered lingering harm from the 2001 earthquakes that killed more than 1,000 people and was unable to absorb such a large number of returning people.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen determined El Salvador has now received significant international aid to recover from the earthquake and that homes, schools and hospitals there have been rebuilt.
"The substantial disruption of living conditions caused by the earthquake" no longer exists, the department said in a statement.
But House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called the decision "a heartbreaking blow to nearly a quarter of a million hard-working Salvadorans who are American in every way”.
Bennie Thompson, ranking Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, said it was "just the latest in a string of heartless, xenophobic actions from the Trump administration”.
El Salvador’s top diplomat, Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez, said Monday's decision showed a need for Congress to act before September 2019.
"We are convinced we can get legislation in the US Congress before that date," he said.
