Justice

Salvadorans in L.A. Brace for Change

Revoking immigration protections on L.A.’s TPS holders could have a dramatic impact on the city’s workforce, communities, and neighborhoods.
Mateo Barrera, 4, at a news conference in Los Angeles on Monday, January. 8. His family members benefit from Temporary Protected Status.Damian Dovarganes/AP

LOS ANGELES, CA—Evelyn Hernandez told her husband that even if she dies, she doesn’t want to leave the United States. “I want to get buried here,” she said she told him one day. “I don’t want you to send me to my country.”

Hernandez is originally from El Salvador, but she’s lived in Los Angeles since she emigrated to the U.S. in 1992 at the age of 19. She has been able to live and work legally in the U.S. since 2001 because of her Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, as it is commonly known.