Since January 2025, the Trump administration has stripped immigrants from country after country of humanitarian protections: Venezuela, Haiti, Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan. But in recent weeks, immigrants from a few nations appear to have escaped that fate.
In the latest example, some 100,000 Ukrainians were scheduled Monday to lose temporary protected status (TPS) from deportation. But the Department of Homeland Security is expected to extend those protections, according to the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington and an official with the Trump administration who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
“Based on our current understanding, TPS for Ukrainians is expected to be extended for an additional six months beyond October,” said Halyna Yusypiuk, an embassy spokeswoman.
While Trump officials and congressional Republicans have touted the termination of most TPS designations — 13 of 17 nations covered under the program have been stripped of protected status since Trump returned to office — immigrant advocates say the administration appears to be softening a signature policy ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections.
“This is different,” said Jessica Bansal, an attorney focused on TPS litigation.
Bansal speculated that Trump officials might be reluctant to deprive more American businesses of employees so close to the election. Previous TPS cancellations have caused turmoil for critical U.S. industries.
“There’s some very concrete negative consequences for businesses and other sorts of constituents that the administration may care more about if they strip these people of their status,” Bansal said.
And any change in policy toward Ukraine is likely to be controversial, advocates said. Trump already faces strong bipartisan backlash over his decision last week to pause new U.S. sanctions on Russia, days before they were to take effect. That came on the heels of his decision to import diesel from Russia, a bid to lower American energy prices that also stands to provide Russian President Vladimir Putin needed resources for his war on Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
“From a political perspective, demanding Ukrainians with TPS in battleground states like Ohio — who fled Putin’s invasion — leave the U.S. would be very unpopular,” said Todd Schulte, president of Fwd.us, a pro-immigration advocacy organization. “This is weeks before voters in the U.S. would issue a judgment on what would be seen as purging Ukrainians and a signal that the administration is siding with the Russian authoritarian.”
Neither DHS nor the White House would confirm that TPS protections for Ukraine would be formally extended.
“An announcement on Ukraine’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time. Until such an announcement is made, Ukrainian individuals present in the U.S. under TPS remain under protection,” DHS said in a statement this weekend.
Established by Congress in 1990, the TPS program shields immigrants living in the United States from being deported to countries experiencing armed conflict, environmental disaster or other extraordinary crises. Since Trump returned to office, his administration has ended the program for about a million people.
In addition to Ukrainians, about 2,000 immigrants from Sudan and Lebanon have retained protections. Sudan is scheduled to lose TPS on Monday, while the designation for Lebanon is set to expire Nov. 27. It is unclear whether those protections will continue.
Last month, DHS also allowed TPS to remain in place for 232,000 Salvadorans. In that case, the Trump administration never formally announced a decision. Instead, officials issued a last-minute notice that Salvadorans could continue living and working legally in the United States, adding that an announcement “will be made at the appropriate time.”
The lack of a clear timeline has forced Salvadorans — part of the program since its 1990 inception — to grapple with an uncertain future, making contingency plans to sell their houses and designate guardians for their U.S.-born children. Some have lost jobs as employers, too, face the risk of abruptly losing workers.
The lack of transparency has allowed Trump officials to placate important stakeholders. Canceling the program outright could jeopardize Trump’s relationship with powerful business groups that have employed Salvadoran TPS-holders for decades. It also could complicate his close relationship with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who faces his own reelection bid in February. The country’s economy depends on remittances from its émigrés in the United States.
Some immigration advocates fear the administration will take a similar approach to Ukraine, silently allowing TPS to continue but leaving communities in limbo. Advocates say Ukraine clearly meets criteria for continued protection: The State Department has a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” warning for Ukraine, the highest possible alert.
“The U.S. is constantly advising people not to travel to Ukraine,” Schulte said — noting, however, that “Haiti is a similar situation and they proceeded” to revoke TPS for Haitians in July. Since then, the Trump administration has been deporting planeloads of people to a country where heavily armed gangs control most of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
In recent weeks, Washington lawmakers, Catholic clergy, business groups and other advocates have pushed the Trump administration to renew protections for Ukrainian immigrants, saying that canceling the program would expose them to deportation at a time when the war is freshly escalating in their country.
In August, the office of Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) brokered a meeting between DHS officials and an advocate for displaced Ukrainians in Anchorage. DHS General Counsel James Percival — a leading voice for the clampdown on TPS — was among those who joined.
And Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) was among the signatories on a letter lawmakers sent Thursday to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin. “Ahead of this winter, when Russian attacks will target Ukraine’s energy grid in an effort to freeze the Ukrainian people into submission,” the letter reads, “we need to recognize the need among many Ukrainians to remain abroad.”
Some 2,000 Ukrainians have settled in Alaska — filling jobs in fish processing plants, according to local immigrant advocates — since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. President Joe Biden approved TPS for Ukrainians soon after the war began. Other Ukrainian TPS holders have settled in Illinois, California, Washington state, Ohio and New York, with many joining the diaspora in Chicago, Sacramento and Seattle.
At Kaas Tailored, a furniture and upholstery manufacturer in Mukilteo, Washington, about 25 miles north of Seattle, president Jeff Kaas has been preparing to lose a handful of Ukrainian workers, including people who sew airplane parts sourced to Boeing.
“It puts deliveries at risk, puts relationships at risk, puts our contracts at risk,” Kaas said. “And they’re all great, great colleagues.”
In Virginia, Lyza, a woman with TPS who spoke on the condition that she be identified by her first name, said she fled Ukraine in April 2022 with her two young daughters. Fearful at first, the girls have been thriving, Lyza said, playing basketball and taking music lessons.
On Friday, Lyza and her husband lost their jobs as the anticipated expiration of their work permits approached.
“We don’t know how long we can stay, because obviously, if something happened that we will be illegal here, then we cannot stay,” Lyza said. “And then we will need to leave everything behind.”
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