Biden administration to let Ukrainians stay longer
WASHINGTON – The Biden administration is allowing thousands of Ukrainians who fled their homeland when Russia invaded a year ago to stay in the United States longer, the administration said Monday. The decision provides relief to Ukrainians whose oneyear authorization to remain in the U.S. was set to expire soon.
The Homeland Security Department said the extension is for certain Ukrainian nationals and their immediate family members who were let into the U.S. before the Uniting for Ukraine program started.
Ukrainians who came in under the Uniting for Ukraine program generally got two years of humanitarian “parole” in the U.S., whereas those who arrived before them generally got permission to stay only for one year. Resettlement agencies have estimated that there are about 20,000 Ukrainians in the oneyear group.
Thousands of Ukrainians came to America last year fleeing the war.
The U.S. government used a program called humanitarian parole to admit them into the country. That program is a way to allow people from other countries to enter the United States on an emergency basis due to an urgent humanitarian situation. But it is usually for a finite amount of time, like a year or two years, and must be renewed for people to stay longer.
Now numerous groups are seeing their permission to remain in the U.S. expiring in coming months, including tens of thousands of Afghans.
That has led to anxiety for thousands who fled war in their homeland and don’t know whether they’ll be kicked out of the U.S. when their humanitarian parole status expires.
Ukraine and immigration have both been hot button topics among Republican politicians who aren’t enthusiastic about continuing aid to the war and have accused the Biden administration of not doing enough to control migration at the southern border. But even in that political environment, there’s been little movement to force Ukrainians to return home.
The Homeland Security Department said the announcement specifically refers to Ukrainians who came into the U.S. on humanitarian parole status from Feb. 24, 2022, through April 25, 2022. They do not need to file any paperwork to get the extension. The department will review cases of Ukrainians in this category over the next four weeks to vet them for the extension, starting with those who came earliest.
Many groups that work with people who come to the U.S. after being forcibly displaced from their countries had been advocating for the extension. In a statement, the head of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, said the extension would provide relief to thousands of anxious Ukrainians.
“For this earliest-arrived group of Ukrainians, the continued legal right to live, work, and access resettlement assistance in the U.S. is absolutely crucial to their well-being,” she said. The organization also called on the administration in the future not to wait until so close to the deadline to extend protections, and noted that many Afghans who came into the country on humanitarian parole will start seeing their protections expire this summer.