Trump Urged to Reverse Course as Ukrainians Who Fled War Face Uncertain Future in the US

WASHINGTON DC, June 10 ------ The Trump administration is expected to announce this week whether or not to comply with the latest federal court order to lift the administrative pause on immigration applications for parolees of the Uniting for Ukraine (U4U) program, two immigration lawyers told Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent.

U4U is the Biden-era streamlined process – started in April 2022 – for displaced Ukrainians and their immediate relatives to apply for humanitarian parole. Earlier this year, the Trump administration paused the program, leaving some 117,000 Ukrainians who had been admitted specifically under the U4U in limbo. However, on May 28, a federal judge from the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a nationwide court order lifting the Trump administration’s suspension of adjudications for immigration benefit applications submitted under programs such as U4U. The move came just a month after the administration extended Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians for 18 months, from April 20, 2025, through Oct. 19, 2026.

However, as the US government recently stepped up its deportations after abruptly terminating parole for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who entered the US through a similar program, Ukrainians fear they will be next. As Kyiv Post reported last month, a bipartisan group of US lawmakers led by Bill Keating (D-MA) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) recently introduced a bill, the Ukrainian Adjustment Act 2025, urging the administration to stabilize the lives of Ukrainians who reside in the US on humanitarian parole.

Speaking to Kyiv Post, Jay Tkachuk, chairman of the Ukrainian American House, a nonprofit aimed at building an effective partnership between Ukraine and the US, said that the dramatic amplitude of the current US administration’s approach to Ukraine has significantly increased the level of concern among the Ukrainian community, particularly the recent, post-2022 invasion refugees. “They see how the Trump administration has gone after those it deems undesirable, like the Venezuelans, for instance, and worry that should the delicate dance of diplomacy produce a negative-for-Ukraine stance in the White House, the consequences for them all would be dire,” he said.

According to Tkachuk, this ever-present anxiety is “putting additional pressure on the already difficult, even at the best of times and for the best prepared, journey of immigration, be its intent a permanent relocation or a temporary survival.” “There are signs that domestic abuse is on the rise among the refugees, as people’s ability to cope with stress has been overwhelmed,” he added.

The policy advocate said the Keating-Fitzpatrick bill would be a very welcome lifeline to the Ukrainian refugees, allowing them a greater peace of mind and a modicum of stability and certainty, which would go a long way. “Ukrainians, as an immigration body, have a lot to offer to the host society, but only when that society gives them a chance to integrate, to bring their gifts to bear fruit,” Tkachuk concluded.

Source: kyivpost.com