The United States is telling nearly 200-thousand immigrants from El Salvador to go home. Washington announced that next year it will end the protected status that some Salvadoran immigrants have. Many have been here for more than a decade. Some have homes, businesses and children who are U.S. citizens. CGTN's Roee Ruttenberg has details.

January 2001. A 7.6 earthquake strikes the Central American nation of El Salvador. Hundreds of aftershocks follow. Nearly a thousand people are killed. More than a hundred thousand homes are destroyed. And the local economy is ruined. Fast forward nearly 20 years. The U.S. government says El Salvador has now fully recovered. And on Monday, the Trump administration announced that some 250-thousand Salvadorans legally living in the U.S. on Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, must now go back. 40-year-old Berta Soledad has lived in the U.S. for half of her life.

BERTA SOLEDAD SALVADORAN LIVING IN US "I don't consider myself an illegal alien, I don't consider myself terrorist."

A so-called TPSer, Soledad works, pays taxes, and raises her eight-year-old American-born daughter.

BERTA SOLEDAD SALVADORAN LIVING IN US "Trump may think he's deporting us. But he is also deporting his own people. Because, there are children who were born here, and this is their country. By ending the TPS, he is also ending the dreams of American citizens."

An estimated 200-thousand children - born in the U.S. - have Salvadoran parents covered by TPS. Many are now voting age. And thousands of families back in El Salvador rely on remittances sent by relatives in the U.S.

LINDOLFO CARBALLO SALVADORAN ACTIVIST "The living conditions in El Salvador are going to go down. It's already hard, it's very difficult to live in El Salvador with the wages and salaries that we have there."

The Trump administration has given the Salvadorans a year and a half to either leave, or find other legal ways to stay. In announcing the decision, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security urged lawmakers to act.

LINDOLFO CARBALLO SALVADORAN ACTIVIST "When you build a temporary house, get to a point where you have to fix it and improve it, not destroy it. You cannot destroy things that are already working. Just fix them, improve them, give them citizenship."

ROEE RUTTENBERG WASHINGTON "This isn't the first time the Trump administration has punted to the Congress on the issue of immigration and deportations. The White House is pushing lawmakers to pass comprehensive immigration reform that could affect millions of people living in the U.S. - both lawfully and unlawfully. Critics say the Salvadorans are just the latest group caught up in this political battle. Roee Ruttenberg, CGTN, in Washington."