Trump administration extends deportation protections for four countries

The Department of Homeland Security filed a notice Thursday that it's extending special immigration protections for about 300,000 immigrants from Sudan, El Salvador, Haiti and Nicaragua until January 2020, after a federal judge temporarily blocked the administration from rescinding the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) program last year.

The backdrop: The immigrants are citizens of nations ravaged by natural or man-made disasters who were allowed to live and work in the U.S. while their home countries recovered. Many have been living in the U.S. for more than two decades, with the government arguing that the program was created to provide temporary aid and shouldn't be continually extended. An end to the program would force immigrants to leave or face deportation.

Go deeper: Judge blocks Trump administration from ending temporary protected status