President Donald Trump announced that his administration has yet to decide on the legal status of 240,000 Ukrainian refugees who are living in the United States.
This is as news broke that the White House was weighing revoking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Ukrainians who fled after Russia's 2022 invasion, an action that could result in en masse deportations.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said, “We’re not looking to hurt anybody, and we’re certainly not looking to hurt them. I’m looking at that, and there are some people who think that’s appropriate, and some who don’t. I’ll be making a decision pretty soon.” He acknowledged that Ukrainians had "gone through a lot."
The Biden administration had renewed TPS for Ukrainians until October 2026 based on continued armed conflict and unsafe conditions in Ukraine. Trump's administration has been harder on immigration, however, issuing executive orders against multiple humanitarian entry programs, including suspending the Uniting for Ukraine program in late January. The program had permitted Ukrainians to remain in the US for up to two years with work authorization and access to health insurance.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem had earlier suspended TPS protections for close to 600,000 Venezuelans, in line with Trump's overall immigration crackdown. According to reports, the proposal to end Ukrainian TPS was already in the works before Trump's recent public fight with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on February 28.
The government has also faced criticism for its changing position on Ukraine, after it recently put military aid on ice and stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv. But Zelensky told reporters on March 6 that the US and Ukraine had re-established cooperation and that delegations would sit down next week for more talks.
Since Russia's complete invasion in 2022, over six million Ukrainians have left their home country, of which approximately 5.2 million have found protection in the European Union member states.
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