U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for about 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, potentially putting them on a fast-track to deportation.
The move, expected as soon as April, would be a stunning reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden’s administration.
The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians was underway before Trump publicly feuded with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week. It is part of a broader Trump administration effort to strip legal status from more than 1.8 million migrants allowed to enter the U.S. under temporary humanitarian parole programs launched under the Biden administration, the sources said.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the department had no announcements at this time. The White House and Ukrainian embassy did not respond to requests for comment.
A Trump executive order issued on January 20 called for DHS to “terminate all categorical parole programs.”
The administration plans to revoke parole for about 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans as soon as this month, the Trump official and one of the sources familiar with the matter said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The plan to revoke parole for those nationalities was first reported, opens new tab by CBS News.
Migrants stripped of their parole status could face fast-track deportation proceedings, according to an internal ICE email seen by Reuters.
Immigrants who cross the border illegally can be put into the fast-track deportation process known as expedited removal, for two years after they enter. But for those who entered through legal ports of entry without being officially “admitted” to the U.S. – as with those on parole – there is no time limit on their rapid removal, the email said.
The Biden programs were part of a broader effort to create temporary legal pathways to deter illegal immigration and provide humanitarian relief.
In addition to the 240,000 Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, and the 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans, these programs covered more than 70,000 Afghans escaping the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
An additional 1 million migrants scheduled a time to cross at a legal border crossing via an app known as CBP One.
Thousands more had access to smaller programs, including family reunification parole for certain people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Trump as a candidate pledged to end the Biden programs, saying they went beyond the bounds of U.S. law.
The Trump administration last month paused processing immigration-related applications for people who entered the U.S. under certain Biden parole programs.
