As protections expire, Ukrainians who escaped war face an uncertain future : NPR

MINNEAPOLIS — Standing outdoors the Ukrainian American Group Heart, Oleksii Chyrka’s nervousness is growing.

“We’re unsure; we don’t know what to do subsequent,” Chyrka tells NPR via a Ukrainian interpreter.

As quickly as this week, issues may drastically change for Chyrka who, alongside along with his spouse, and three youngsters, may lose his authorized standing within the U.S. after residing right here since 2023. That would additionally imply he’ll lose his work allow, and his jobs as a cupboard maker and FedEx driver.

Going again to his house nation of Ukraine and his metropolis, Kharkiv, within the far northeast close to the warfare’s entrance traces, just isn’t an choice for him, he says.

“It is very harmful, particularly our metropolis, Kharkiv,” Chyrka stated. “I do not need it.”

Chyrka is one among about 240,000 Ukrainians who fled to the U.S. after the Russian invasion of their nation via a Biden-era program known as Uniting for Ukraine, which offered momentary safety from deportation and permission to work.

However these authorized protections look more and more fragile, and never simply due to President Trump’s recent dust-up with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. On the day he took workplace in January, President Trump ordered the termination of all “categorical parole packages,” leaving Uniting For Ukraine enrollees not sure of their future within the U.S.

“They’re in a really precarious standing at this level,” stated Anne Smith, the manager director of the Ukraine Immigration Activity Power, a nonprofit shaped in 2022 to assist Ukrainians navigate the U.S. immigration system.

Uniting For Ukraine launched rapidly within the spring of 2022, permitting folks within the U.S. residents and lawful everlasting residents to assist Ukrainians resettle.

Greater than half of these sponsors have been concentrated in 5 states — Illinois, New York, California, Florida and Washington — in line with knowledge from the Division of Homeland Safety. However Ukrainians weren’t required to stay in the identical place as their sponsors, making it unimaginable to say for positive precisely the place they settled, in line with Smith.

The Trump administration this week moved to terminate parole for greater than 500,000 individuals who entered the U.S. via an identical program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Now Ukrainians worry they are going to be subsequent.

Lots of of friends fill Ukrainian American Group Heart throughout a Lenten barbecue in Minneapolis, MN, March 7, 2025. All suggestions from the occasion are used to offer humanitarian support to Ukraine and assist not too long ago arrived Ukrainians.

Tim Evans/for NPR

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Tim Evans/for NPR

Ukrainians in U.S. ‘can’t stay a full life’

Some Ukrainians are already in a limbo.

28-year-old Viktoriia Panova’s work allow expired final month.

Earlier than it expired, she labored three jobs — at a restaurant, a restaurant, and a bar. Now she will be able to’t work legally in any respect.

“Ukrainians can’t simply sit and do nothing,” Panova stated. “My palms are shaking as a result of I’ve no work. I’ve nothing to do now.”

She utilized for a piece allow renewal, nevertheless it has not been processed, and it is unclear if it is going to ever be. She’s now residing off modest financial savings from working her three jobs.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers, the company that administers the immigration system, says it’s not appearing on these registrations or renewals.

The USCIS says it’s pausing the processing of any immigration profit requests for anybody who was allowed into the U.S. beneath parole packages, together with United For Ukraine, till the company can “full further screening and vetting to find out if there are any fraud, public security, or nationwide safety issues,” in line with an automatic electronic mail response despatched to candidates and shared with NPR.

A spokesman for the Division of Homeland Safety, which incorporates USCIS, confirmed the pause on all pending profit requests for parolees beneath the Uniting For Ukraine course of.

“The impact is that it leaves these Ukrainians with no lawful technique to keep in a protected nation, and with no finish to the warfare in sight,” stated Smith, who can be a working towards immigration lawyer in Washington.

For Panova, this newest parole uncertainty piles on to the sensation that her life has been placed on maintain because the Russian invasion.

“Ukrainians, we can’t create any plans for our lives due to this case,” Panova stated. “We can’t stay a full life.”

Iryna Koshun, 38, poses for a portrait at her residence in Edina, MN, March 8, 2025. Koshun and her two kids have been sponsored to the US via the Uniting for Ukraine parole program, whereas Koshun’s husband is combating on the frontlines within the Ukrainian navy.

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Constructing a neighborhood

In Minneapolis, many Ukrainians have began constructing their new lives and contributing to the neighborhood.

In line with the Minnesota Division of Human Providers, greater than 2,000 Ukrainians have come to Minneapolis via the Uniting for Ukraine Program.

On a latest Friday evening, the Ukrainian American Group Heart in Minneapolis hosted a Lenten barbecue, as they do each Friday of the pre-Easter season.

The occasion has develop into very fashionable amongst locals. So many individuals — principally People — confirmed up that the road outdoors went down the block.

Iryna Koshun, 38, was one of many latest Ukrainian arrivals in attendance.

She’s from Odesa, a port metropolis in Ukraine that has taken heavy rocket and missile fireplace from Russia.

Koshun has been in Minneapolis for simply 6 months, works at Marshalls, and has one other yr left on her authorized keep. She got here along with her two sons, leaving her husband behind in Ukraine to battle within the warfare.

Andrii Koshun, 14, shows his portray honoring the town of Donetsk and the Ukrainian navy at an residence he shares along with his mom and youthful brother in Edina, MN, March 8, 2025.

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“I hope that this program continues for us to be protected; that folks in America

will proceed to assist us the way in which they’ve till now,” she says via

an interpreter. She says she has felt welcomed by the People she’s met

in Minneapolis, and simply hopes U.S. coverage will mirror that generosity, too.

Immigration attorneys have been extra cautious. Some weren’t shocked that the Trump administration has moved to finish these humanitarian parole packages, and had been telling their purchasers they need to search different types of authorized protections to remain within the U.S.

At the least 50,000 Ukrainians have signed up for Momentary Protected Standing, or TPS, which additionally supplies momentary safety from deportation and permission to work legally within the U.S. In January, the Biden administration on the finish of its time period moved to increase TPS for Ukraine till at the very least 2026.

But it surely’s unclear what number of Ukrainians will be capable of reap the benefits of that extension. Immigration attorneys say a considerable quantity who have already got TPS must re-register earlier than their standing expires on April 19 — and USCIS just isn’t appearing on these requests both, due to the pause on immigration advantages for anybody who got here to the U.S. via a parole program.

President Trump was requested earlier this month if his administration plans to revoke TPS for Ukrainians, a step it has already introduced for Haitians and Venezuelans.

“We’re not seeking to harm them. Particularly Ukrainians, they’ve gone via rather a lot,” Trump stated. “I will be making a call fairly quickly.”

Vadym and Liubov Holiuk hope the choice comes earlier than they lose their safety from deportation in April.

The couple’s United for Ukraine parole expired final yr. They utilized for renewal, however haven’t obtained a response.

“We’re a visitor in the US,” Vadym Holiuk stated. “If he decides to shut this program, it is OK. We do not have a alternative.”

Members of the Holiuk household pose for a portrait close to the house of their sponsors, Mark and Sharon Norlander, in Brooklyn Park, MN, March 8, 2025.

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The Holiuk’s say the neighborhood in Minneapolis has embraced them. Their sponsor household hosts them for holidays, dinners, and drives them to medical appointments.

Now they hope the Trump administration will embrace them, too, earlier than they run out of time.

“[We’ll] attempt to study English … attempt to keep right here,” Vadym Holiuk stated. “We do not know what is going to [happen] tomorrow.”