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Claudia is shown at her home on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. The Salvadoran mother is among Temporary Protected Status recipients awaiting a decision from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Melissa Phillip\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Most mornings, Claudia gets up at 5 a.m., tying on a black apron and wrapping pupusas in aluminum foil for her daughters\u2019 lunch. But on the morning of Sept. 9, she was still in bed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was frantically refreshing the news<\/a> on her phone. Then, she stopped on one video announcing the cancellation of Temporary Protected Status<\/a>, a humanitarian program that allowed her and thousands of other Salvadorans to temporarily live and work in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n A few minutes into the video, an attorney explained it in simple terms: The program had expired, but there was no official termination date yet.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Her three daughters climbed into bed beside her as she listened. \u201cDid they cancel it or not?\u201d she remembered thinking.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Claudia and others protected under the program, the decision can determine whether they can remain in the U.S. or have to return to their home countries, where violence and instability continue.<\/p>\n She told her daughters what she heard, and they began to cry.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aNo\u00a0mami, y ahora qu\u00e9 vamos a hacer?\u201d they asked. \u201cWhat is going to happen to us?\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Her oldest daughter, 15, had spent years getting ahead in school and started earning college credits this year. But that morning she told her mom the credits didn\u2019t matter if they meant being separated from her.<\/p>\n But Claudia could only offer them the same words that she\u2019s carried over the last 25 years, words inspired by her own mom: \u201cWe have to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n WIDE NET: This Bellaire family voted for Trump. Now his immigration crackdown could separate them.<\/a><\/p>\n She is\u00a0one of 170,000 Salvadorans<\/a> whose futures remain uncertain as they wait for the Trump administration to decide whether to renew or end TPS, which allows people from countries facing war, natural disasters, or other extraordinary conditions to temporarily remain and work in the U.S. The program was set to expire for El Salvador on Sept. 9, but the Department of Homeland Security said recipients would remain protected while an announcement was pending \u2014 leaving families like Claudia\u2019s in limbo.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Houston Chronicle is identifying Claudia by her first name because of the uncertainty around TPS and fears of deportation and family separation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n For Houston, the stakes are close to home. Harris County has the second-largest<\/a> Salvadoran population in the country, with over 110,000 Salvadorans, behind only Los Angeles County. Claudia became part of that community in 2001, though Texas wasn\u2019t in her future plans.<\/p>\n A betta fish named Miracle follows Claudia\u2019s finger at her home on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. The Salvadoran mother is among Temporary Protected Status recipients awaiting a decision from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Melissa Phillip\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n Her journey to Texas<\/p>\n The gang violence that surged in El Salvador in the late 1990s<\/a> had already driven her two siblings out.\u00a0<\/p>\n But one encounter convinced her mother that Claudia, then 19, had to leave, too. Claudia pointed to her left cheekbone, then her neck and chest, tracing the places where a gang member had held a machete.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t safe there anymore,\u201d she said in Spanish. \u201cSo she made the decision, \u2018No, you have to go, even if it means we give you the only thing we have.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Her parents took out a loan against their home to complete her journey. Claudia understood what they were risking: if she didn\u2019t pay it back, they could lose the only home they had.<\/p>\n In 2001, she traveled north with a cousin and several women from her hometown, the group watching over each other along the way. At one point, Claudia was crammed into the storage compartment at the bottom of a bus, near the tires. Several hours passed and when she finally climbed out, her legs buckled, and a man had to help her up.<\/p>\n Her journey took her to Arizona, California and eventually Houston. She remembers studying the roads, cars and signs around her before making her way to her brother\u2019s home. By the next day, she was cleaning houses.\u00a0<\/p>\n OPINION: America helped drive Salvadorans from home. We can\u2019t expel them again.<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n How El Salvador got TPS<\/p>\n By the time Claudia arrived in Houston in 2001, generations of Central American immigrants had already put down roots. Neighborhoods such as Gulfton became gathering places<\/a> for families from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, while organizations like CRECEN<\/a> grew out of an earlier wave of migration during armed conflicts in Central America.<\/p>\n Congress created TPS through the Immigration Act of 1990, and El Salvador was the first country<\/a> designated under the program as its civil war continued. That initial protection lasted 18 months.<\/p>\n A decade later, after two devastating earthquakes struck the country in 2001<\/a>, the U.S. gave El Salvador TPS status again, which has spanned nearly all of Claudia\u2019s adult life.\u00a0<\/p>\n The debate over how long the protection should continue has followed TPS holders for years. In 2017, the Department of Homeland Security had planned to strip TPS<\/a> from Salvadorans the following year, but litigation blocked that decision and the Biden administration eventually rescinded it in 2023.<\/p>\n Now, the Trump administration is targeting TPS again as it wages its immigration crackdown. Haiti\u2019s designation\u00a0was scheduled to end<\/a> Feb. 3, 2026, but a federal court temporarily blocked the decision. After a Supreme Court ruling in June, the termination took effect<\/a> July 27.<\/p>\n Houston became \u2018less temporary\u2019 and more like home<\/p>\n After a few months in Houston and juggling three jobs, Claudia accomplished her mission: she paid her parents\u2019 debt off.<\/p>\n She went from managing her week selling perfume, jewelry and clothes to cleaning homes and working in a restaurant \u2014 a job that she has now held for 25 years. Claudia even sent additional money to help rebuild her family\u2019s ideal home and helped them buy a cow, something she had once dreamed about.\u00a0<\/p>\n Looking back on the work it took to get there, she came to a conclusion:\u00a0\u201cVali\u00f3 la pena.\u201d It had been worth it.<\/p>\n Shoes belonging to Claudia\u2019s children are stacked beside the door of their home on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. Claudia, a Salvadoran mother, is among Temporary Protected Status recipients awaiting a decision from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Melissa Phillip\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n Houston is also where she became a mom to her three U.S.-born daughters.\u00a0<\/p>\n Some mornings she would wake up early to knock on doors, praying for someone she trusted enough to watch over them. One day, the girls stayed with a sitter for as long as 14 hours, so Claudia could pick up an extra shift.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause I needed the work to get them ahead.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n One summer, she asked a teacher to enroll her oldest in summer school even though her daughter was one of the top students in her class. Claudia needed somewhere safe for her daughter to go while she was at work.<\/p>\n Her life now revolves around work, school drop-offs, church and her daughters\u2019 activities. She volunteers through her church, including teaching in her prayer group, and has spent about three years involved with\u00a0CRECEN, making room in her busy schedule for meetings and rallies.\u00a0<\/p>\n What comes next<\/p>\n Only now, as a mother herself, does Claudia understand the bravery it took for her parents to decide between staying together and separating to keep their three children safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s that same courage, she says, that she wants to show her own daughters as they navigate this new uncertainty.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rose Gondiez, an attorney with the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, said part of the issue is the lack of a formal federal decision about what will happen for Salvadorans with TPS.<\/p>\n COMMUNITY PROFILE: Gulfton is the ‘Ellis Island of Houston.’ Residents say fear of ICE is hurting the neighborhood<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIn the absence of an official decision,\u201d\u00a0Gondiez said, \u201cthousands of families are unclear about decisions about their jobs and their families and their futures,\u201d including whether they can continue to feel safe in the country.<\/p>\n Gondiez said TPS holders should consult with an immigration attorney about whether they might qualify for another form of relief. She also recommends that families begin making preparedness plans rather than waiting until all protections are lost.<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we’re in this limbo period, it’s just a good thing to do regardless,\u201d she said. \u201cI would also say they should stay alert to changes in workers’ employment authorization.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Claudia holds her study Bible at her home on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. The Salvadoran mother is among Temporary Protected Status recipients awaiting a decision from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Melissa Phillip\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n Claudia has started preparing at home, organizing her daughters\u2019 passports and other documents alongside a list of family contacts. She\u2019s pushed her 15-year-old to get her driver\u2019s license. \u201cYou have to learn how to drive,\u201d Claudia told her. \u201cMaybe you won\u2019t be able to take the house with you, but at least take the car.\u201d<\/p>\n The days leading up to Sept. 9, she spent an evening with her kids and they discussed their options. Stay in the country, or leave for El Salvador.<\/p>\n Claudia has decided that if her protected status does end, she\u2019ll leave on her own rather than face the risk of being deported or worse, detained.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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