Trump administration allows TPS to continue for Salvadorans – for now

An exterior view of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency headquarters is seen July 6, 2018 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong/Getty Images North America hide caption

Roughly 170,000 immigrants from El Salvador covered by Temporary Protected Status can still legally work and live in the U.S. – for now.

The Trump administration declined this week to terminate TPS for Salvadorans, even though it has done so for people from other countries like Haiti and Syria. But it also hasn't said whether it will extend the protection in the future.

In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said it will make an announcement on Salvadoran TPS, "at the appropriate time."

The lack of action means that TPS recipients still have legal status, but their lives remain in limbo.

"I feel numb … the physical and emotional damage of the last month, it's so frustrating that it feels like we suffered that all for nothing," TPS recipient Daysi Gonzalez said in an Instagram post .

Gonzalez has been chronicling on social media what it has been like to live under the weight of uncertainty.

Gonzalez, who is now 31, arrived in the U.S. with her parents and older sister when she was six years old. They were visiting family in California and she was promised a trip to Disneyland. But a month and a day into their six month tourist visa, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake devastated El Salvador, and TPS was extended to Salvadorans who were in the country at that time.