“Temporary” means temporary, Trump administration controversially insists, by Paul Mirengoff.

On Monday, the Trump administration announced the termination of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 200,000 immigrants from El Salvador who, without that status, will be illegal. The termination will take effect in 2019.

The El Salvadorans in question are those who were living illegally in the U.S. when earthquakes struck their country way back in 2001. The idea, as Mark Krikorian reminds us, was to hold off temporarily on sending them home (and give them work permits) until the effects of the natural disasters in El Salvador subsided. …

The Trump administration made the right call. As its name tells us, Temporary Protected Status is temporary. It covers situations where “extraordinary and temporary conditions” mean that the country from which the immigrants came is unable “to handle adequately [their] return.”

As noted, we are returning approximately 20,000 Salvadorans per year. Thus, it’s hard to argue that El Salvador can’t handle the return of these immigrants. But even if it couldn’t this would not be due to “extraordinary and temporary conditions.” Rather, it would be due to the permanent situation in El Salvador.