Bush signs the Immigration Act of 1990, granting El Salvador the first Temporary Protected Status

President George H.W. Bush signed the Immigration Act of 1990 on November 29, 1990, which created the Temporary Protected Status program and immediately designated El Salvador as its first recipient country. The designation came after more than a decade of civil war in El Salvador that had killed an estimated 70,000 civilians and displaced hundreds of thousands, following advocacy by Congressman Joe Moakley who had worked since 1983 to create legal protection for Salvadorans facing deportation into an active war zone. Approximately 150,000 Salvadorans living in the United States qualified for the initial TPS designation.