FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Medhini Kumar
Associate Director, Communications
[email protected]
Washington, D.C. (September 3, 2026) – Ayuda strongly condemns the administration’s plan to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and related benefits for El Salvador on September 9, 2026. This comes just days after the tragic death of 20-year-old Haitian college student Pierre Damas Bel, who died by suicide after losing TPS status and being placed on an ICE ankle monitor. This is a devastating blow to hundreds of thousands of long-term community members, families, and workers nationwide, and especially across the Greater Washington region (DMV).
“Thousands of our neighbors will now lose the protections that have allowed them to build lives, raise families, and contribute to our region for decades, all while immigration legal service providers are already operating beyond capacity,” said Victoria Maqueda Feldman, Ayuda’s Director of Legal Programs. “By ending yet another essential protection, the administration is deliberately destabilizing established communities and placing untenable pressure on nonprofit legal infrastructure in a blatant effort to accelerate mass deportations. These families are deeply rooted in our communities and have helped shaped our region for decades. Stripping away their protections is unconscionable.”
This termination continues an alarming pattern of dismantling protections for immigrants from nations with predominantly Black and Brown populations. It carries an outsized impact on the DMV:
- 200,000+ Salvadorans call the Greater Washington (DMV) region home, making it the second-largest Salvadoran community in the United States and the largest immigrant group in the national capital area.
- 34,000+ D.C., Maryland, and Virginia residents rely directly on TPS to live, work, and raise their families.
- $965 million is contributed annually by Salvadoran TPS holders to the D.C. metro area economy alone.
At Ayuda alone, legal and social services teams currently serve over 640 clients of Salvadoran origin, some of whom depend on TPS designations to remain protected from deportation. Ayuda will continue to stand with Salvadoran families across the region providing legal support, trusted information, and advocacy as they navigate the consequences of this decision.
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About Ayuda:
Ayuda provides direct legal, social, and language access services to low-income immigrants in Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Since 1973, Ayuda has served more than 150,000 immigrants throughout the region. Ayuda is the only nonprofit service provider in the area that provides a wide range of immigration and family law assistance, social services, and language access support for all immigrants – including women, men, and children – from anywhere in the world. Visit www.ayuda.com to learn more.