WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American Business Immigration Coalition (ABIC) is bringing together a broad coalition of business owners, industry executives and leaders from chambers of commerce, labor, and community organizations to urge the Trump administration to end the uncertainty facing 170,000 long-term workers, their families and their employers by extending the work permits for Salvadorans with Temporary Protected Status (TPS).
The Trump administration has yet to announce whether it will extend or end TPS for El Salvador nearly a month after the official decision deadline. While Salvadoran TPS holders across the country remain protected and authorized to work, the daily uncertainty has left hundreds of thousands of families and employers struggling to plan their lives and business operations.
“To maintain America’s global economic leadership, our immigration policies must offer stability and clarity to the employers and industries that drive our progress,” wrote the coalition in a letter to President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin, underscoring the economic stakes of stripping legal work authorization from people who have lived and worked in the United States for more than 25 years. “We fully support a secure and orderly border to ensure public safety. We must also protect the economic foundation of our nation by stabilizing our existing, law-abiding workforce.”
The letter adds to ABIC’s ongoing mobilization of businesses, faith leaders, elected officials, and community leaders to secure legal protections and work permits for longtime immigrants whose contributions sustain American businesses and communities. The signatories include ABIC Board Chairman and former Arizona Republican state Sen. Bob Worsley, ABIC CEO Rebecca Shi, IBC Bank CEO Dennis Nixon, Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association President and CEO Carol Dover, Kansas Livestock Association CEO Matt Teagarden and Comité de 100 Co-chair Massey Villarreal. Small-business owners, chamber leaders, restaurateurs, farmers and employers from across the country also joined the appeal.
Citing estimates that Salvadoran TPS holders have a labor force participation rate of 90%, contribute $5.4 billion annually to U.S. gross domestic product and pay $1.5 billion each year in federal, state and local taxes, the signatories warn that ending TPS for El Salvador would compound ongoing labor shortages, raise recruitment and training costs and reduce productivity. For families, ending TPS for El Salvador would directly threaten the livelihoods of more than 150,000 U.S. citizen children who currently depend on their parents’ earnings.
Read the full letter and list of signatories HERE.