Ukrainians and Sudanese Keep Their Protections for Now. Mercy Is Good. Limbo Is Not.

More than 100,000 Ukrainians living legally in the United States went into the weekend not knowing whether they could stay past Monday. On Sunday, the government gave them a partial answer: for now, yes.

The Department of Homeland Security told CBS News that immigrants from Ukraine and Sudan enrolled in Temporary Protected Status will "retain protection" until final decisions are announced. Those decisions will "be made at the appropriate time," DHS said, CBS reported. Both programs had been set to end Monday, Oct. 19.

About 103,700 Ukrainians and 1,900 Sudanese hold the status, according to DHS figures cited by The Washington Sun. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin did not issue a decision to end either program before the deadline.

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

What TPS is, and why this is unusual

Congress created TPS in 1990. It lets the government give a temporary reprieve from deportation, along with work permits, to people from countries facing armed conflict, environmental disaster or another crisis that makes return unsafe, CBS explained.

The Ukraine program began in spring 2022, soon after Russia's full-scale invasion. Sudan's has existed since the late 1990s because of war and political turmoil there. As recently as September, federal guidance to employers said Ukraine's designation was "set to terminate on Oct. 19, 2026," according to USCIS.

Sunday's move stands apart from the administration's broader approach. Officials have called TPS a de facto amnesty that has been extended too often, and over the past year and a half the administration has ended protections for more than 1 million immigrants from over a dozen countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti and Venezuela, CBS reported. El Salvador's program was left in a similar holding pattern when it lapsed last month.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill in September to extend TPS for Ukrainians. "The reality is that it is simply not safe for them to return to Ukraine," Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said. "We should not force Ukrainians who we allowed into the U.S. and who are here legally and contributing to our communities back into an active war zone."

Opinion: Mercy for now. A decision is still owed.

Conservatives are right that "temporary" should mean temporary. A program extended for nearly 30 years, as Sudan's has been, is not temporary in any ordinary sense. Laws should mean what they say, and a nation has every right to decide who stays. Scripture calls governing authorities "the minister of God" for order and justice (Romans 13:4).

But Scripture also speaks plainly about the stranger. "The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself" (Leviticus 19:34). Ukrainians fled a war that is still going on. They came through legal channels the United States opened. Sending families back into an active war zone would be hard to square with that command, and Sunday's decision reflects that.

Christian leaders have pressed this point together. This week, Catholic and evangelical leaders issued their first joint statement on immigration, affirming secure borders while urging protection for families and asking Congress to act.

What is not humane is limbo. A family that cannot plan past "the appropriate time" cannot sign a lease, keep a job with confidence or tell their children where they will go to school next year. Employers do not know whether their workers are authorized. The same is true for Salvadorans waiting since last month.

The answer belongs with Congress. Murkowski's bill offers a way to settle the Ukrainian question in law rather than through last-minute agency statements. Whatever Congress decides, it should decide it openly.

"Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay" (James 5:12). For the families affected by Sunday's decision, a clear answer, delivered soon, would be its own kind of mercy.