MEXICO CITY (AP) — El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Monday the United States government will extend temporary protected status for more than 200,000 Salvadorans living in the U.S.

Bukele posted a video to Twitter in which U.S. Ambassador Ronald Douglas Johnson said the two countries have signed an agreement extending TPS for one year.

The program allows Salvadorans to stay in the U.S. and avoid deportation proceedings.

"This is recognition of the achievements and good work of the government of Nayib Bukele," Johnson said.

The Trump administration's move to end TPS for El Salvador and several other countries had been enjoined by a federal judge.

In September, El Salvador agreed to work with the U.S. to limit migration crossing its borders and accept asylum seekers who tried to reach the U.S. border.

Bukele had faced domestic criticism when his government signed the immigration agreement with U.S. Critics thought he had failed to get the coveted TPS extension in return.

Bukele tweeted Monday, "They said it was impossible."

"We didn't want to share it earlier because it could have hindered talks," he wrote.

Salvadoran citizens were originally granted TPS in 2001 following earthquakes in 2001.

El Salvador had been worried about potentially having to absorb thousands of citizens who had made lives for themselves in the U.S.

Deportees are often stigmatized in El Salvador — people think they must have done something wrong to get deported — and find it more difficult to find work and re-establish themselves in their native countries.