U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he would soon decide whether to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, following a Reuters report that his administration planned to take that step.
News of this potential status change has New York's Ukraine both "scared," and looking to prepare itself, according to a community leader.
"Many of these people do not have homes to return to. We're talking about people whose entire towns have been leveled altogether. Where would be sending them back to? Nothing," said Andrij Dobriansky, Director of Communications for the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America.
"We're preparing our community by making sure that leaflets for 'know Your immigrant rights' are translated into proper languages. For them, that could be Ukrainian. That also could be Russian language, Crimean Tatar and other languages. We want to let them know what other, not only their rights, if they are approached by immigration officials, we want to let them know what their other possibilities are for obtaining temporary residency in this country," said Dobriansky.
Dobriansky said fears were already rising before this possible visa change announcement.
"People were scared as of the beginning of 2025, after the inauguration," he said.
The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians would be part of a broader Trump administration effort to strip legal status from more than 1.8 million migrants allowed to enter the U.S. under temporary humanitarian parole programs launched under the Biden administration, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
A move to revoke the Ukrainians' status could come as soon as April, all four said. They said the plans to revoke their status got underway before Trump publicly feuded with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on the Reuters report in a post on X, saying "no decision has been made at this time." U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said on Wednesday that the department had no new announcements. Ukrainian government agencies did not respond to requests for comment.
A Trump executive order issued on January 20 called for DHS to "terminate all categorical parole programs."
The administration plans to revoke parole for about 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans as soon as this month, the Trump official and one of the sources familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The plan to revoke parole for those nationalities was first reported by CBS News.
Migrants stripped of their parole status could face fast-track deportation proceedings, according to an internal ICE email seen by Reuters.
Immigrants who cross the border illegally can be put into the fast-track deportation process known as expedited removal, for two years after they enter. But for those who entered through legal ports of entry without being officially "admitted" to the U.S. - as with those on parole - there is no time limit on their rapid removal, the email said.
The Biden programs were part of a broader effort to create temporary legal pathways to deter illegal immigration and provide humanitarian relief.
In addition to the 240,000 Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, and the 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, these programs covered more than 70,000 Afghans escaping the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
An additional 1 million migrants scheduled a time to cross at a legal border crossing via an app known as CBP One.
Thousands more had access to smaller programs, including family reunification parole for certain people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Trump as a candidate pledged to end the Biden programs, saying they went beyond the bounds of U.S. law.
(Production by: Hussein al Waaile, Dan Fastenberg)
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