More than 100,000 Ukrainians and Sudanese living in the U.S. received a last-minute deportation reprieve as the Department of Homeland Security said they will "retain protection" under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) past the Oct. 19, 2026 deadline — while declining to say how long it will last.
What DHS Actually Said
TPS protections were set to expire Monday, Oct. 19, for roughly 101,000 Ukrainians and 1,800 Sudanese — federal data put enrollment at more than 100,000 Ukrainians and more than 1,790 Sudanese as of March 2025. Rather than a termination or a formal extension, DHS issued a statement on Sunday, Oct. 18, saying an announcement "will be made at the appropriate time" and that those covered "retain protection" until then.
The statement set no new expiration date, opened no re-registration window, and named no timeline for a final decision. DHS did not say whether beneficiaries can keep their work permits, though TPS generally allows people to work while protections remain in effect.
The Six-Month Question
Federal law provides that if the DHS secretary does not decide on a TPS designation at least 60 days before it expires, the designation automatically extends for six months. For an Oct. 19 expiry, that decision deadline fell on Aug. 20, 2026 — and no determination has been published in the Federal Register for either country since the 18-month extensions granted in January 2025. Some analysts say the silence itself may extend both designations to April 19, 2027.
DHS has not confirmed that reading. The Washington Post reported that the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington expects a six-month extension: "Based on our current understanding, TPS for Ukrainians is expected to be extended for an additional six months beyond October," said embassy spokeswoman Halyna Yusypiuk.
Meanwhile, the decision lands two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
A Broader Pattern of Reprieve
The move is the second in as many months. In September, the administration let nearly 200,000 Salvadorans keep TPS past a Sept. 9 expiry, using identical "at the appropriate time" language. Yet the reprieves contrast with the wider crackdown: the administration has terminated TPS for more than 1 million people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria. Officials have called TPS a de facto amnesty expanded excessively under former President Joe Biden, insisting it is temporary, not a permanent solution.
Ukraine was first designated for TPS in April 2022, two months after Russia's full-scale invasion. Sudan has held the designation since the late 1990s, renewed by successive administrations amid war and instability. Both countries carry the State Department's highest travel warning.
Advocates Welcome the Move, Demand Certainty
"We're grateful for an extension, however temporary, for TPS holders from Ukraine and Sudan," said Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief, urging longer-term relief. Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, said both countries still meet the legal conditions for TPS: "Russia's war on Ukraine is nearing its fifth year... Sudan remains locked in a brutal civil war marked by famine, widespread human rights abuses and the hallmarks of genocide. It is not safe for these families to go home."
Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of Hope For Ukraine, called the announcement "last-minute patches" — "a bandage that has been placed on a wound that does not solve the real issue" — and pressed for a permanent path to residency. A bipartisan group of 31 senators, led by Tammy Duckworth and including Republicans Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, had urged an 18-month extension.
For now, more than 100,000 people are safe from deportation — but with no end date, no written policy, and no Federal Register notice for employers, that safety rests on a weekend press statement. The advocates' message to DHS is blunt: put it in writing.
Watch: YouTube search results for news coverage of the DHS decision keeping TPS protections in place for Ukrainians and Sudanese (no single network video segment was indexed at press time; use this search for the latest broadcast reports).
Music in this post's reel: Kevin MacLeod - Long Road Ahead B (incompetech.com), licensed under CC BY 3.0
Sources:
- Associated Press / Los Angeles Times: Homeland Security grants temporary deportation reprieve for more than 100K Ukrainians and Sudanese
- Reuters: US says immigrants from Ukraine, Sudan can keep protected status for now
- CNN: Immigrants from Ukraine and Sudan to keep deportation protections for now
- Newsmax: Trump Keeps Deportation Protections for Ukrainians, Sudanese