WASHINGTON >> The Biden administration Friday issued sweeping extensions of deportation protections for hundreds of thousands of people from Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela in a move that makes it almost impossible for President-elect Donald Trump to swiftly strip the benefit when he takes office.

The extension of Temporary Protected Status, as the program is called, allows the immigrants to remain in the country with work permits and a shield from deportation for another 18 months from the expiration of their current protection in the spring. Late last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken recommended the protections be extended in a series of letters.

For decades, Democratic and Republican administrations have designated the protection for citizens of countries that are in upheaval and deemed unsafe to return to. Biden has expanded who could receive the status, as war erupted in Ukraine and instability gripped countries such as Venezuela and Haiti.

“These designations are rooted in careful review and interagency collaboration to ensure those affected by environmental disasters and instability are given the protections they need while continuing to contribute meaningfully to our communities,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, said in a statement.

Trump vowed to end the program, at least for certain countries. Immigrant advocates had been urging the Biden administration to extend it for many of those countries before he takes office.

In his first term, Trump terminated the status for about 400,000 people from El Salvador and other countries, arguing that conditions there had changed and that the protection was no longer warranted. The move was challenged in court and did not take effect, but he is expected to try again during his second term, as part of his pledge to conduct mass deportations.

According to the Congressional Research Service, more than 1 million migrants from countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and the Middle East had Temporary Protected Status as of 2024. The move makes it legally difficult for Trump to roll back the protections for citizens of the four countries, at least until they expire sometime in 2026.

“Because President Biden has extended protection for the nationals of all these countries, President Trump will be unable to deport these individuals anytime soon, “ said Steve Yale-Loehr, an immigration scholar at Cornell Law School.