The Department of Homeland Security said that more than 100,000 people from Ukraine and Sudan can stay in the United States without immediate risk of deportation, amounting to a temporary reprieve after their right to stay in the country was set to expire on Monday.

Temporary Protected Status was scheduled to expire on Oct. 19 for approximately 101,000 Ukrainians and 1,800 Sudanese.

However, DHS stated that an announcement “will be made at the appropriate time.”

In the interim, the department said in a written statement, Ukrainians and Sudanese in the U.S. covered by those temporary measures “retain protection.”

The Department did not specify how long they might remain or when a final announcement regarding their status would be issued.

DHS did not respond to a question regarding whether they can retain their work permits, but TPS generally permits individuals to work while their protections remain in effect.

Monday's decision is another case in which the Trump administration — which has previously tried to end these temporary deportation protections and send people back to their home countries — has allowed those covered by the temporary status to stay, but without giving any guidance on how long.

The Trump administration has already terminated TPS for over 1 million people from 13 countries, among them Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria.

However, in a shift in practice roughly a month ago, the administration left protections in place for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans whose TPS had been set to expire on Sept. 9.

In that instance, they likewise stated that they would reach a decision at the appropriate time and that, in the interim, people from El Salvador could continue to work and live in the U.S.

Activists and a bipartisan group of lawmakers have been raising the alarm over the impending deadline for TPS to expire for Ukrainians, arguing that conditions remain unsafe for them to return home amid the war with Russia.

Ukraine was initially designated for TPS in April 2022, in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion two months prior.

The Biden administration subsequently renewed the designation, most recently in January 2025, when DHS authorized an additional 18 months of protection extending through October 2026.

Established in 1997, the TPS program for Sudan has been extended by successive U.S. administrations ever since, owing to the armed conflict and political instability that have afflicted the African nation.

The decision on Monday comes a fortnight before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, at which Trump's hard-line immigration policies will be put to the test at the ballot box.

The U.S. Congress established TPS in 1990 in order to avert deportations to countries afflicted by natural disasters or civil strife.

It allows those already in the country to remain and work, for renewable periods, if the homeland security secretary determines that conditions are unsafe for their return.

However, it does not give them a pathway to permanent residency.

Supporters say that using this tool protects people from being sent back to dangerous situations and that uprooting people covered by TPS after years of living in the U.S. is cruel.

Critics, especially in the Trump administration, say successive administrations have extended these protections for years regardless of what has happened in the home countries.

Under federal rules, TPS is extended automatically for six months if the secretary does not make a determination at least 60 days before the designation expires.

“We are grateful for an extension, however temporary, for TPS holders from Ukraine and Sudan,” said Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief, an organization that has provided humanitarian assistance in both countries.

“We encourage the administration and Congress to consider longer-term relief for women, men and children trying to carve out stability while their countries of origin remain in upheaval.”

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, noted that Ukraine and Sudan are not safe and satisfy the legal conditions for extending TPS.

“Russia’s war on Ukraine is approaching its fifth year, and Ukrainians are bracing for another winter of drone and missile strikes that drive civilian casualties and devastate critical infrastructure.

Sudan remains locked in a brutal civil war marked by famine, widespread human rights abuses and the hallmarks of genocide,” Vignarajah said.

“It is not safe for these families to return home.”

Rebecca Santana, a reporter, contributed to this report from Washington.