Last-Minute Reprieve: US Lets More Than 100,000 Ukrainians and Sudanese Stay for Now

More than 100,000 people from Ukraine and Sudan can stay in the United States without immediate risk of deportation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said. Although their temporary protected status (TPS) was set to expire on Monday, the department says those covered by the measures will retain their protections for now. The decision came at the very last minute.

The right to stay for about 101,000 Ukrainians and 1,800 Sudanese under TPS was due to end on Monday itself. But in a written statement, the DHS said an announcement “will be made at the appropriate time”. Until then, Ukrainians and Sudanese in the US covered by those temporary measures “retain protection”. The department did not indicate how long they could stay or when a final announcement would be made.

The DHS did not respond to a question about whether they can keep their work permits. However, TPS generally allows people to work while their protections remain in effect.

The decision is another instance of a familiar pattern from the Trump administration, which has previously sought to end these temporary protections and send people back to their home countries. This time those covered have been allowed to stay, but with no guidance as to how long — so the uncertainty remains.

Notably, the Trump administration has already terminated TPS for more than one million people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria. Against that backdrop, the reprieve for Ukraine and Sudan has surprised many.

Yuriy Boyechko, chief executive of Hope for Ukraine, a non-profit that provides humanitarian aid in Ukraine and helps resettle newcomers in the US, described the government’s announcement as “last-minute patches”. In his words, it is “a bandage that has been placed on a wound that does not solve the real issue”. He said: “It’s time for the US to come up with some normal path to permanent residency for all these people.” He emphasised that they cannot safely return to Ukraine.

Andrew Arthur, a national security and immigration expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favours lower immigration, said the government will eventually decide but faces no deadline, and that until then nothing changes. “It’s simply going to be an extension until it is a termination,” he said. “It’s beyond cavil that both Sudan and Ukraine are experiencing ongoing armed conflict, and therefore the secretary is well within his authority to continue TPS for each of them.”

A similar episode occurred roughly a month ago, when the administration kept protections in place for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans whose TPS was set to expire on 9 September. In that case too, officials said a decision would be made at the appropriate time and that, in the meantime, Salvadorans could continue to live and work in the US.

Ukraine was first designated for TPS in April 2022, two months after Russia’s full-scale invasion. The Biden administration subsequently extended the designation, most recently in January 2025, when the DHS authorised an additional 18 months of protection through October 2026. Sudan’s TPS programme, by contrast, was established in 1997, and successive US administrations have extended it because of the armed conflict and political instability that have plagued the African nation.

Monday’s decision comes two weeks before the midterm elections, when Trump’s hardline immigration policies will face a test at the ballot box. Activists and a bipartisan group of lawmakers had been raising the alarm over the approaching TPS deadline for Ukrainians, arguing that conditions remain unsafe for them to return home amid the war with Russia. For now, that warning has prevailed — but with a final decision still pending, the uncertainty is not over.