CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cleveland is just one of nine cities around the country where immigration lawyer Margaret W. Wong and her associates advise clients about their legal matters.

As the founder and managing partner of her firm, Wong’s work involves representing immigrants who are looking for safe living conditions in the United States. Some do this by seeking Temporary Protected Status.

What You Need To Know

  • Margaret W. Wong's work involves representing immigrants who are looking for safe living conditions in the United States

  • TPS is the Temporary Protected Status, which means that for that 18 month[s] or 24 months you are allowed to stay in America with a work permit

  • Wong said the countries chosen for this protection typically face humanitarian crises

  • She encouraged the community to be compassionate to those who seek this status

“TPS is the Temporary Protected Status, which means that for that 18 month[s] or 24 months you are allowed to stay in America with a work permit,” Wong said.

TPS prevents individuals living in the U.S. from deportation back to countries that are designated as unsafe. This status was set to expire for nationals from a group of countries.

But, a recent announcement from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency a part of the Department of Homeland Security, extended these protections for eligible people from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Nepal, and the 2013 Sudan designation through June 2024.

Haiti also received a new extension of its own "due to extraordinary and temporary conditions," in the country.

"TPS is very much only a work permit to stop you from deportation and to allow you to work and try and file tax return[s] in America,” Wong said.

Wong said the countries chosen for this protection typically face humanitarian crises.

“El Salvador had two pairs of TPS,” Wong said. “One is in the [19]90s after the civil war, the Dirty War, and one started in January or February of 2001. So, for example, if [the] El Salvadoran TPS is not extended, all the people who have stayed here or who have American-born children, they would not be able to legally work or to stay.”

Wong described these extensions as important.

“It's extremely important that [the] TPS status for certain nationalities be extended because it's like Cinderella. Suddenly, after midnight of that day, they became a nobody,” Wong said.

Wong said these updates can be abrupt.

“The problem with TPS is normally the presidents and the White House and the Homeland Security department [sic], they don't tell you until the last minute. So in your mind, you're like, ‘Oh, what do I tell my boss? How do I extend my driver's license?'” Wong said.

Wong encouraged the community to be compassionate to those who seek this status.

“Unbeknownst a lot of [the] American public, a lot of these people are very, very wealthy and very successful. When I see some of my clients’ tax return[s], I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ll go be you,'” Wong said.