Immigrants from Ukraine and Sudan will retain their protections against deportation for now

Immigrants from Ukraine and Sudan registered in the Temporary Protected Status Policy will be able to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation for the time being, even though their protections are set to expire soon, the Department of Homeland Security told CBS News on Sunday.

TPS protections granted to tens of thousands of Ukrainians and hundreds of Sudanese immigrants were officially set to end Monday.

But in statements Sunday, DHS said final decisions on the fate of humanitarian immigration programs “will be made at the appropriate time.”

Until such decisions are announced, DHS added, Ukrainian and Sudanese nationals enrolled in the TPS program “will retain their protection.”

The decisions to keep deportation protections in place, while not final, stand in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s broader stance toward TPS programs.

Trump administration officials have regularly denounced TPS as a de facto amnesty policy abused by the Biden administration, which encourages illegal immigration and which has been extended too often, despite its temporary nature.

Over the past year and a half, the Trump administration, as part of its aggressive immigration crackdown, has revoked TPS protections for more than a million immigrants from more than a dozen countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti and Venezuela.

The programs for Ukrainian and Sudanese nationals are among a handful of TPS policies that have remained in place nearly two years into President Trump’s second term, alongside protections afforded to tens of thousands of immigrants from El Salvador. Their TPS program was also set to expire last month, but DHS retained its protections, pending a final announcement.

Created in 1990 by Congress, TPS allows the U.S. government to offer temporary reprieve from deportation and work permits to immigrants, illegal or legal, from countries facing armed conflict, environmental disaster or other crisis that makes their return unsafe.

The TPS policy for Ukrainians was first announced by the Biden administration in spring 2022, shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As of March 2025, more than 100,000 Ukrainians were registered for TPS, including those allowed to enter the United States under a Biden-era sponsorship policy.

The TPS program for Sudan has existed since the late 1990s, with different administrations expanding the policy due to the armed conflict and political unrest that plagued the African country. As of March 2025, approximately 1,800 Sudanese nationals benefited from TPS.