The Department of Homeland Security says about 600,000 Venezuelans and more than 200,000 El Salvadorans already living in the United States can legally remain another 18 months.

President-elect Donald J. Trump’s advisers have spent months trying to identify a disease that will help them build their case for closing the border.

The extension helps safeguard one of the nation’s largest immigrant groups from the incoming Trump administration, which has made mass deportations a top priority.

President Joe Biden's administration on Friday renewed deportation relief that currently covers 900,000 immigrants from Venezuela, El Salvador, Ukraine and Sudan, a move that would delay any attempts by President-elect Donald Trump to sunset those protections.