HARTFORD, Conn. — Federal immigration officials granted a six-month reprieve Thursday to a Connecticut immigrant facing deportation, a move that may allow him to undergo a scheduled kidney transplant.

The move came just hours before a rally Thursday in support of Nelson Rosales Santos, 49, who was scheduled to be deported to Honduras on Monday.

“This deportation would have been a death sentence — a cruel and callous act that history would have judged in the harshest of lights,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said in announcing the postponement. “But six months is a short reprieve, and we must redouble our efforts to achieve permanent relief for this Connecticut family.”