Who is covered and until when

The Department of Homeland Security says more than 100,000 people from Ukraine and Sudan face no immediate risk of deportation, even though their temporary protected status was due to end on Monday. The department says an announcement will come "at the appropriate time" and that until then those covered retain protection. No timeline for a final decision was given.

• About 101,000 Ukrainians were covered by the deferment
• About 1,800 Sudanese were also set to lose status on Monday

Work permits remain uncertain

The DHS did not say whether Ukrainians and Sudanese can keep their work permits. Temporary protected status generally allows people to work while their protections remain in effect, so the question now hangs on the pending decision.

Part of a pattern

The move fits a pattern under the Trump administration, which has previously sought to end these protections but is now letting people stay without saying for how long.

• The administration has already terminated temporary protected status for more than 1 million people from 13 countries, including Venezuela, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Afghanistan and Syria
• Roughly a month earlier, it kept protections for nearly 200,000 Salvadorans whose status was set to expire on 9 September, again deferring a decision and letting them keep living and working in the US
• The decision came two weeks before the midterm elections, at which Trump's hard-line immigration policies face a ballot test

Advocates and analysts react

Yuriy Boyechko, CEO of Hope For Ukraine, called the announcement "last-minute patches" and "a bandage that has been placed on a wound that does not solve the real issue". He said it is time for the US to create a normal path to permanent residency for these people, stressing they cannot safely return to Ukraine.

Andrew Arthur, a national-security and immigration expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, said the government will eventually decide but faces no deadline, and nothing changes until then.