US ends protections for 200,000

WASHINGTON - The US government has announced the end of a special protected status for about 200,000 Salvadoran immigrants, a move that threatens with deportation tens of thousands of well-established families with children born in the United States.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the end of the "temporary protected status" granted to Salvadorans already in the US in 2001, when two major earthquakes rocked the Central American country.

They were given 18 months to leave or be deported, which officials said is enough time for a legislative solution to be crafted by Congress to allow them to stay.