The Biden administration has launched a program that will allow American citizens and groups to financially sponsor Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion of their country so they can come to the United States earlier, the Homeland Security Ministry (DHS) and the president said Thursday. Biden.
Ukrainians who are selected to travel to the United States on the initiative will receive humanitarian parole, which allows them to circumvent visa and refugee programs, which usually take years to complete. Although it does not offer permanent status, parole will allow Ukrainians to live and work in the United States for two years.
The Sponsorship Program, called Unification for Ukraine, which is set to launch on April 25, is the first concrete US policy aimed at fulfilling Mr Biden’s promise to welcome up to 100,000 of the 5 million Ukrainians who have fled their homeland. as part of the biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
“This new humanitarian parole program will complement existing legal avenues available to Ukrainians, including immigrant visas and refugee processing,” Mr Biden said in a White House statement. It will provide an appropriate channel for safe, legal migration from Europe to the United States for Ukrainians who have an American sponsor, such as a family or [nongovernmental organization]”
The policy, administration officials said, also aims to discourage Ukrainians from traveling to Mexico to seek entry on the southern border of the United States, where the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) handled a record 3,274 Ukrainians in March alone. over 1100% since February.
U.S. immigration officials have handled nearly 15,000 undocumented Ukrainians in the past three months, most of them on the Mexican border, a senior DHS official said in an interview with reporters Thursday.
In early March, U.S. border guards were asked to consider admitting Ukrainians to humanitarian exemptions from the 42nd pandemic restrictions. But administration officials said Thursday that U.S. border officials will no longer process undocumented Ukrainians. for travel on April 25.
A Ukrainian asylum seeker in the United States shows her passport while waiting to cross the border at the port of San Isidro on April 5, 2022 in Tijuana, Mexico. Getty Images
Since then, a senior DHS official has said, “We will apply Title 42 equally to all nationalities at the border,” referring to the expulsion policy for migrants, which is due to expire on May 23.
“Ukrainian citizens who are present and do not have a visa or have not passed the Unification for Ukraine program will no longer be released on parole unless they have another factor that would lead a CBP border guard to file a lawsuit. on a case-by-case basis, that they deserve a humanitarian exemption for Title 42, ”added the senior DHS official.
The president said the new initiative “will ensure that the United States abides by its commitment to go to the Ukrainian people and does not need to cross our southern border.”
Once the sponsorship program opens for applications later this month, American individuals or organizations wishing to sponsor Ukrainians abroad will be required to submit affidavits for financial support and pass checks. DHS will then determine if they qualify for sponsorship.
To be allowed to travel to the United States, Ukrainians will first need to be identified by their future sponsors, as they will not be able to apply directly to the program, administration officials said. Ukrainians will be eligible for sponsorship if they were in Ukraine on February 11.
If the sponsorship is approved, Ukrainians identified by US sponsors will have to undergo security checks abroad to ensure they do not pose a risk to US security or public safety. They will also need to be vaccinated against infectious diseases.
The sponsorship initiative, announced Thursday, could benefit thousands of displaced Ukrainians with ties to the United States who have so far had limited opportunities to come directly to the United States. A spokesman for the administration said the United States expected a “majority” of Ukrainians, welcomed by the United States, to arrive through the new program.
“We are proud to fulfill President Biden’s commitment to welcoming 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russian aggression in the United States,” Interior Minister Alejandro Mayorkas said on Thursday.
Asylum seekers in Ukraine stand in line before crossing into the United States at the San Isidro port of entry into Tijuana, Mexico, on April 2, 2022. GUILLERMO ARIAS / AFP via Getty Images
US visa applicants face long waiting times due to the huge drop in applications, exacerbated by the pandemic, and many Ukrainians may not be eligible for visas. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 crippled refugee process in the United States took between 18 and 24 months to complete the few selected to enter the pipeline.
Citing interviews with displaced Ukrainians, administration officials said they had set up the early release program because they understood that many Ukrainians were seeking temporary safe haven rather than permanent resettlement.
However, Ukrainians entering the United States through the parole program may face legal uncertainty if they choose to remain permanent, as they will not have a clear path to reside in the United States, just as the tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees who have been released conditionally last year after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
But the administration on Thursday also announced efforts to direct more Ukrainians to the US refugee program, focusing on identifying vulnerable IDPs in Eastern Europe, including women, children, the elderly, people with serious medical conditions and members of the LGBTQ community.
The State Department, a senior administration official, is also working to track 18,000 Ukrainians who entered the U.S. refugee pipeline before Russia’s invasion of the so-called Lautenberg program, which allows religious minorities in the former Soviet republics to receive accelerated resettlement. USA.
U.S. refugee resettlement officials who moved to Moldova after their post in Kyiv was closed due to the war have identified “several” Ukrainians in Eastern Europe who have pending cases under the Lautenberg program, the official said.
Administration officials said U.S. embassies and consulates are also working to increase meetings for Ukrainians seeking temporary US visas and to speed up cases of Ukrainians with urgent humanitarian, medical or other “emergency” needs.
As the United States seeks to resettle up to 125,000 refugees worldwide in fiscal 2022, fewer than 9,000 refugees have been admitted so far, according to the State Department. In March, only a dozen Ukrainians entered the United States as refugees.
Matthew La Corte, an immigration policy analyst at the Niskanen Center with libertarianism, said Ukraine’s sponsorship program could help the Biden administration achieve its goal of allowing Americans to sponsor refugees from different countries. Late last year, the United States announced a smaller program for groups of American citizens hoping to sponsor Afghan refugees.
“This urgency around Ukraine could eventually speed up the launch of full private sponsorship, which has the potential to help the administration expand the resettlement system,” La Corte told CBS News. “They really struggled, 15 months in the administration, to resettle a large number of refugees.
Nicole Sganga contributed to the report.
More Camilo Montoya-Galves
Camilo Montoya-Galves is an immigration reporter for CBS News. Based in Washington, it reflects immigration and policy.
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