Ukrainian immigrants will keep protections from deportation for now, Trump administration says
The administration also said that TPS remains in place for people from Sudan
The Trump administration says temporary immigration protections will remain in place for about 101,000 Ukrainians who gained safety in the U.S. after the Russian invasion, the announcement coming as relief was set to expire on Monday.
The administration also said Temporary Protected Status remains in place for about 1,800 people from Sudan. TPS can be awarded to nations mired in war, environmental disaster, epidemics or other extraordinary circumstances, where it would be unsafe for their people to leave the U.S. to go home.
The Philadelphia region is home to one of the nation’s larger Ukrainian communities, tens of thousands strong, and became a key point of welcome and resettlement after the Russian invasion.
“These are our neighbors, employees, parents and children,” Andre Krug, president and CEO of the KleinLife social services agency, said in a statement as the expiration date neared. “They were welcomed into this country, they followed the rules, and they became part of our community. Now they are being left to wonder whether they will be allowed to work, support their families, or remain safely in the United States.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not announce the duration of the protections, saying that an announcement would be made “at the appropriate time,” and that until then people from both countries who are here under TPS “retain protection.”
Stress and uncertainty coursed through Ukrainian communities here and around the country as TPS neared an official end. Thousands were at risk in the Philadelphia region, both those who have been granted temporary status and others still hoping to get it.
The down-to-the-wire announcement for Ukraine and Sudan mirrors what occurred last month, when protection for an estimated 170,000 people from El Salvador was set to end on Sept. 9. The administration posted a last-minute alert saying an announcement would be made later, and until then Salvadorans here would retain TPS.
No subsequent announcement has been made.
TPS does not include a path to citizenship or permanent residency.
President Donald Trump and his allies say, however, that TPS has become a backdoor means of continuous residency, and that “temporary” means what it says and people cannot stay indefinitely. The administration has worked to dramatically reduce the use of what has for decades been a mainstay of U.S. immigration and humanitarian policy.
In early 2025, about 1.3 million people from 17 designated countries were living in the United States under TPS, according to the American Immigration Council. Since then, the Trump administration has ended or announced its intention to end TPS for more than 1 million of them, including about 330,000 Haitians.
Some Ukrainians had already left for other lands. Others had nowhere to go, their homes in Ukraine destroyed, their cities under attack, and their lives here bound to keeping their children safe.
Immigration lawyers and organizations said that, by law, the lack of prior notice from the Trump administration had automatically triggered a six-month extension of TPS. But the administration offered no statement or clarity around that, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services continued to list the expiration date as Oct. 19.
