Teen Vogue   ·   Link to Article

Teen Vogue: Advocates Worry Ending Temporary Protected Status Could Put Teens Like These in the Next Family-Separation Crisis

Sixteen-year-old Katy Martinez lives in Las Vegas, where she’s finishing her junior year of high school and planning for college. She's from a union family, and her parents both migrated from El Salvador nearly 20 years ago; she’s a U.S. citizen who has spent her entire life in the States. The administration wants to end TPS for an estimated 260,000 Salvadorans on September 9. Katy says that fact is always on her mind.

“It’s something that looms over my head, even at school,” she tells Teen Vogue. Her parents are both protected under TPS, and she says the prospect of it being ended for El Salvador means she doesn’t know “if I’ll ever have the chance to go through with going to a dance, or going to my competitions for dance, or even help out at my church.”

She says that if TPS were ended for El Salvadorans, she isn’t sure if she would leave with her parents or try to stay.

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