U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi is urging the Trump administration to extend Temporary Protected Status for roughly 200,000 Salvadorans nationwide, saying that many of the immigrants he first came to know as day laborers when he served as Glen Cove’s mayor in the 1990s have since become homeowners, business owners and parents raising families on Long Island.
During a virtual news conference Monday, Suozzi, a Democrat representing Long Island’s North Shore and northeast Queens, called for the administration to extend TPS for Salvadorans and establish a permanent pathway to legal status for recipients who have lived and worked in the United States for decades. Roughly 60,000 Salvadoran TPS holders live in the New York metropolitan area, according to advocates who took part in the news conference.
Suozzi said that his support for Salvadoran immigrants dates back to his years as mayor of Glen Cove, from 1994-2001, when many newly arrived immigrants from Central America gathered on street corners seeking work.
“Those folks that have been here since the 1990s and have had legal status since 2001 under TPS … now have their own businesses,” he said. “They own their own homes. Their kids went to school with my kids. They’ve lived great American lives. And they’re central parts of the fabric of our communities.”
Many of the people he met while serving as mayor, Suozzi said, have spent more than two decades building lives on Long Island, which makes the prospect of losing their legal protections especially troubling.
“The idea of taking away their status now and subjecting them to possible deportation is not only inhumane, I would argue it’s un-American,” he said.
Nabil Azamy, an organizer for the Glen Cove Rapid Response Network, said in a written statement to the Herald that Congress and the administration must create a permanent solution before Salvadoran TPS protections expire.
“For many of these individuals, TPS is the only thing standing between them and deportation,” Azamy stated. “Ending TPS doesn’t simply strip a status — it removes the one barrier keeping people who have lived here lawfully for decades out of ICE custody,” he added, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Azamy also criticized what he described as a lack of transparency surrounding federal immigration enforcement, saying that local advocates have been unable to determine how many Salvadoran TPS holders on Long Island have already been detained or deported.
“ICE has consistently evaded public scrutiny by concealing who it takes, where they are held and when they are removed,” Azamy said. “That opacity is by design, shielding the agency from accountability at the very moment the public most needs to see what is being done in its name.”
In a statement to the Herald, Connie Pinilla, president of the North Shore Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, also expressed support for immigration reforms that provide long-term legal certainty while respecting federal law.
“We believe that hardworking members of the Hispanic community who have built their lives here, contributed to our economy, supported their families and respected our laws deserve humane and lasting solutions,” Pinilla wrote. “Our hope is that policymakers will continue working toward compassionate, fair and lawful solutions that preserve families, recognize the valuable contributions of these individuals and uphold the principles upon which our nation was founded.”
Suozzi said he has sent a number of letters to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin urging the administration to extend TPS or provide another legal pathway for Salvadorans who have no other means of remaining in the country legally. Recipients who have lived in the United States for more than 25 years, he said, would have already pursued other immigration options if they had been eligible for them.
“I agree with the president that we need to secure the border,” Suozzi said. “I agree with the president that we need to deport violent criminals, but we also need to treat people like human beings. The idea of taking people like a young woman who came here when she was 7 years old and is working full time and paying her taxes … and stripping away from them the only life they’ve ever known is just inhuman.”
Suozzi said that several Salvadoran TPS holders declined invitations to take part in Monday’s news conference because they feared being identified publicly if the protections expire.
One who did take part was Jose Urias, a Salvadoran TPS holder and a former Uniondale resident who now owns a real estate and construction business in Massachusetts employing more than 50 people. He said that the uncertainty surrounding TPS is already affecting his company.
“How can I tell my customer that this government is not allowing me to finish their project because they think that I am a threat for them when all I’ve been doing is working and providing, paying local taxes, federal taxes?” Urias said.
He added that lenders have become hesitant to finance his business because of the uncertainty surrounding his immigration status.
“That’s what we’ve been doing: creating business, creating work,” Urias said. “Right now I’m a risk for the banks. They don’t want to give us a loan anymore because they think I only have 60 days.”
Created by Congress in 1990, TPS allows immigrants from countries affected by armed conflict, natural disasters or other extraordinary conditions to live and work legally in the United States temporarily. Salvadorans first received the designation after devastating earthquakes struck the country in 2001, and the protections have been repeatedly renewed over the past 25 years.
According to advocates, TPS holders contribute more than $5 billion annually to the U.S. economy and pay roughly $1.5 billion in taxes each year, while submitting to recurring background checks to maintain their legal status. More than 80 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including seven from New York, recently urged President Trump to extend the designation.
