Almost 200,000 US children 'poised to be separated from Salvadoran parents'

Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez told a news conference that 190,000 Salvadorans in America "have procreated 192,000 boys and girls who are American citizens and who have all the rights of American citizens."

He said that, if Washington put an end to the program, known as the Temporary Protection Status, for Salvadorans, "this would mean breaking up families that are in the United States."

The US Department of Homeland Security is expected to announce next Monday whether it will renew TPS for Salvadorans. The last extension of the program runs out on March 8.

The US government has already announced it is ending TPS for 59,000 Haitians and 5,300 Nicaraguans, and is weighing doing the same for Hondurans and Salvadorans.

Some of the migrants have headed north, over the border into Canada.

Any US-born children would have the right to stay in America or to return there, as they are citizens. That however bestows no automatic right to stay for their parents.

Martinez said El Salvador's consulates in the United States were giving free advice to Salvadorans on what to do.

He added that his government did not want to see families separated, "especially for those boys and girls under the age of 21."

El Salvador has lobbied US lawmakers to find a solution, perhaps through a law allowing Salvadorans with TPS to get permanent permission to remain.

Martinez said he and Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren were making phone calls on Thursday and on Friday to lobby further.

The United States extended its TPS program to Salvadorans in 2001, following devastating earthquakes in the Central American nation.