Reuters report about 200,000 Ukrainian refugees trapped in the “legal limbo” of the United States

According to RCO News Agency, the immigration program that Joe Biden, the former president of the United States, launched in April 2022 with the aim of helping the migration of Ukrainians due to the war, according to statistics, allowed about 260,000 Ukrainians to come to the United States for a period of 2 years.

According to “Reuters”, but now the internal data of the United States government shows that the Trump administration’s delays in processing the status of Ukrainian asylum seekers included in this program have caused about 200,000 of them to be in “legal limbo” and face the risk of losing their legal status by March 31.

Figures belonging to the United Nations have shown that the number of Ukrainian refugees worldwide reaches 5.9 million people, of which 5.3 million people are in Europe.

Reuters News agency continues to describe the situation of one of the Ukrainians in the United States named “Katerina Golizdra”, who has been caught in a legal limbo for 6 months due to the delays of the Trump administration.

He, who is 35 years old, believes that he will be able to endure this legal limbo for only another 6 months and wait for the Trump administration’s decision regarding the humanitarian program launched by Biden.

Gulizdra’s legal status expired in May, which automatically puts him at risk of extradition.

He lost his license and was forced to resign from his management job at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; A job that brought him an annual income of 50 thousand dollars.

Gulzdra has also lost the health insurance that would have allowed him to cover his liver problem and is no longer able to send money to his mother, who is living as an asylum seeker in Germany.

“I don’t know when my residence permit will be renewed in the United States, and this threatens the short-term sense of security I have had in America,” he says.

He could be detained by federal immigration agents pending an update on the status of his application, according to three former immigration officials.

He states: “I live in constant stress and anxiety. “If I have to leave America, I’ll have to rebuild something.”

Reuters reported that 24 of the Ukrainian asylum seekers who lost their jobs due to delays in processing their permit renewals, who worked in jobs such as technology workers, preschool teachers, financial planners and interior designers, explained that while they wait for authorities to decide on their status, they have been forced to spend from their savings, turn to social assistance services and go into debt to make ends meet.

Some of the people interviewed by Reuters said they feared being arrested by US immigration officials. Others said they stayed at home or left the United States for Canada, Europe and South America.

But they don’t want to accept returning to Ukraine as an option.

Gulizdra’s house in Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kyiv, was set on fire in March 2022 when the town was taken over by Russia.

Ann Smith, executive director and legal counsel for the Ukrainian Refugees’ Rights Group, the Ukrainian Migration Task Force, said her network of lawyers receives several calls each week from Ukrainians who say their family members have been detained by immigration officials. Agents have arrested the Ukrainians at construction sites, while delivering food or working as Internet taxi or truck drivers, as well as in large-scale operations in Chicago and Cleveland.

end of message