Recognizing dramatic and systemic improvements to El Salvador‘s security situation, the Trump administration should remove temporary protected status for Salvadorans living in the United States.

Temporary protected status allows individuals without legal permission to live in the U.S. to reside and find employment in the country for a temporary period. TPS is traditionally granted to recognize the danger individuals face if deported immediately to their country of origin. The Biden administration renewed the status for Salvadorans shortly before leaving office.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should revisit that decision and remove TPS. Instead, asylum claims by Salvadorans should be considered individually, on a case-by-case basis.

The rationale for removing TPS is clear. As the Washington Examiner observed back in January, “New figures from the Salvadoran government of President Nayib Bukele show only 114 murders in 2024. In the context of El Salvador’s recent history, 114 is astonishingly low. The trend line is clear. In 2023, the country suffered 154 homicides. In 2022, there were 495. In 2021 and 2020, there were more than 1,000. In 2019, more than 2,000 Salvadorans were murdered. Applied per 100,000 people, El Salvador’s homicide rate is now one-tenth that of Mexico and 30 times lower than that of Jamaica.”

Other evidence also points to the absence of a need for a continued TPS finding. For example, in early April, the Trump administration lowered El Salvador’s risk assessment for U.S. visitors to the State Department’s lowest level. Albeit somewhat absurdly, that means the State Department now views El Salvador as a lower risk destination for U.S. visitors than France, Germany, and Sweden.

Moreover, it’s not as if the Trump administration has been reticent to reconsider other Biden-era TPS findings. Last week, the administration appealed to the Supreme Court to remove TPS status for Venezuelans. Considering that Venezuela remains riven with extraordinary levels of violent crime, government repression, and other risks to individual freedom and safety, it is absurd that Salvadorans would receive continued TPS protection when Venezuelans do not.

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Indeed, the Trump administration is also attempting to remove TPS status for Afghans, many of whom helped the U.S. government during its 20-year presence in Afghanistan. Who on Earth could honestly claim that it is safer or more moral to deport anti-Taliban Afghans into the hands of the Taliban than it is to send Salvadorans back to their now thriving country and budding tourist destination?

Common sense demands that the Trump administration remove TPS status from Salvadorans.