Ukraine and Sudan TPS Hit Their End Date Monday, and El Salvador Shows What DHS Silence Looks Like in Practice

Temporary Protected Status for Ukraine and Sudan reaches its scheduled end on Monday, Oct. 19, with no published DHS decision. September’s handling of El Salvador points to the likely result: protection that continues on paper nobody has yet issued.

Temporary Protected Status for Ukraine and Sudan is scheduled to expire on Monday, Oct. 19, and the Department of Homeland Security still had not said over the weekend whether it will extend or end either designation. The roughly 105,600 people DHS estimated in January 2025 were eligible to keep that status are likely to start Tuesday where Salvadoran TPS holders have been since early September: told by the government that their protection continues, but holding work permits and notices that show an expired date.

As of Saturday, the USCIS website still listed Oct. 19 as the end date, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Asked about Ukraine, DHS supplied a statement from USCIS spokesman Zach Kahler saying the agency “is actively processing discretionary re-parole cases” on a case-by-case basis, and added that “all aliens are undergoing intense screening and vetting.” Neither statement addresses TPS itself. As Immigration Analytics reported on Oct. 10, the statute required a decision by Aug. 20 and says that when none is made, the designation rolls forward six months, to April 19, 2027.

What happened when El Salvador’s date came and went

El Salvador is the closest precedent. When that designation reached its Sept. 9 end date without a Federal Register decision, the administration posted a last-minute alert saying an announcement would come at a later time and that beneficiaries would keep TPS in the meantime, according to the Inquirer, which reported that no follow-up announcement has been made. States Newsroom reported separately that DHS has not confirmed the six-month statutory extension is in effect, saying only that Salvadorans currently have protection from deportation and permission to work. If the statute applies as written, the Salvadoran designation now runs to March 9, 2027, six months past its old end date.

Protection without paperwork. A Federal Register notice normally names which work permits stay valid, through what date, and what employers should write on Form I-9. A holding alert does none of that, so a worker’s status may hold while the proof of it thins out. The last formal paperwork for many Ukrainians points to Oct. 19: USCIS notices mailed this summer to Ukrainian TPS holders with pending renewals extended their expired work permits only to that date, and a Sept. 3 E-Verify bulletin told employers to enter Oct. 19 as the expiration date. An employer who reverifies on Tuesday will be weighing a statute and, at best, a web alert against the date printed on the documents.

About 240,000 more Ukrainians came under the now-paused Uniting for Ukraine parole program, the Inquirer reported. Their route is the case-by-case re-parole review the spokesman described, not a designation covering everyone who registered.

A termination is still possible, but not a fast one

Silence does not rule out a termination notice later. But INA 244(b)(3)(B) bars a termination from taking effect until 60 days after the notice is published or the end of the current designation period, whichever is later. A termination published on Oct. 19 could not take effect before Dec. 18, 2026, and if the automatic extension is in force, not before April 19, 2027. Challenging any decision in court is harder after the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in Mullin v. Doe in June, which held that the TPS review bar covers non-constitutional challenges to the government’s determinations. The open question, which that ruling did not address, is whether a failure to decide at all counts as a “determination” under the bar.

In a Sept. 22 letter, 31 senators, including Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, asked Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for an 18-month extension and a redesignation covering Ukrainians who arrived after Oct. 20, 2023. The senators put the number of Ukrainian TPS holders at about 101,000 and said they contribute roughly $2.6 billion to the economy and $716 million in taxes each year. The administration’s direction runs the other way: it has moved to end protections for more than 1 million TPS holders, according to both the Inquirer and States Newsroom, leaving only El Salvador, Lebanon, Ukraine and Sudan with active designations.

Dates on the calendar

Oct. 19: Scheduled end of the Ukraine and Sudan designations and of the existing work-permit extensions.
Oct. 20: First day employers reverifying TPS-based Form I-9s have no dated government document pointing past Oct. 19, unless DHS publishes one.
Nov. 27: Lebanon’s designation, the next one due, is scheduled to expire.
March 9 and April 19, 2027: End dates for El Salvador and for Ukraine and Sudan if the six-month statutory extension applies.

This article is for general information and is not legal advice.

Sources

Vasanth Vaidyanathan, Esq.

Administrator

Vasanth Vaidyanathan is an immigration attorney with over 20 years of experience focused exclusively on U.S. immigration and nationality law. He holds a LL.M. from California Western School of Law, San Deigo and advises individuals and businesses on employment and family-based immigration matters, including H-1B, PERM, EB categories, and adjustment of status. He has also been a featured speaker at immigration seminars across the U.S. To reach Vasanth visit: https://www.vnathan.com/

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