WASHINGTON: Thousands of Salvadorans, Haitians and others now sheltered in the United States from danger in their home countries might have to leave under a crackdown the Trump administration is weighing on a programme that critics slam as "back-door" immigration.

People close to the administration said the White House is considering anti-immigration activists’ appeals for pull-back on the 27-year old US.

Temporary Protected Status (TPS) programme, which protects more than 300,000 people in the country.

"There’s no question people inside the administration want to reform the excesses," said Roy Beck, president of NumbersUSA, a group that seeks to reduce immigration into the United States.

This time there actually are people willing to listen," Beck said in a telephone interview.

Officials at the State Department and Department of Homeland Security would not comment on administration plans for TPS. The White House did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

President Donald Trump campaigned last year on a promise to deport large numbers of immigrants, a racially-tinged political theme that won him passionate support among some US voters.

Since he took office in January, Trump has moved to ban US entry by people from select Muslim countries.

He also announced the end next March of an Obama-era program giving temporary legal status to "Dreamers" brought illegally into the United States as children, unless Congress revives it.

Now immigration advocacy groups fear Trump will curtail TPS by refusing to renew the protected status of some of the nine countries covered: El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Last month, Sudan was slated for TPS termination, effective November 2018. Immigration groups were heartened somewhat that South Sudan’s status was renewed in September through mid-2019. Advocacy groups said they are also concerned Trump might seek legislative changes making it harder to designate TPS countries.

The International News