The White House is pushing back against a report in Reuters that the Trump administration plans to revoke the legal status of 240,000 Ukrainian refugees who fled the Russian invasion to come to the US. "This is more fake news from Reuters based on anonymous sources who have no idea what they are talking about," tweeted press secretary Karoline Leavitt. "The truth: no decision has been made at this time." The Reuters report cites an internal email from Immigration and Customs Enforcement suggesting the refugees could be fast-tracked for deportation.
The Telegraph calls the potential move, which could come as soon as April, an "extraordinary reversal" of President Biden's open arms to Ukraine refugees. The report comes amid increasing tensions between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which worsened last week during Zelensky's visit to the White House to discuss a peace plan involving Ukraine and Russia. Reuters notes, however, that this planned move on the refugees was in the works before Friday's tense meeting, and that it's part of Trump's desire to strip legal status from a wide range of immigrants who came into the US under the Biden parole programs.
That includes 70,000 Afghans here after fleeing the Taliban, as well as 530,000 or so Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans; the latter group could see their legal status pulled as soon as this month, say Reuters' sources. During his campaign, Trump had vowed to undo the programs, saying they crossed the boundaries of US law. The Kyiv Independent notes that about 5.2 million Ukrainians have taken shelter abroad, most settling in countries in the EU, as the war in Ukraine wages on. A Homeland Security official tells Reuters that the department has no comment at this time.
(This story was updated to reflect the White House comments.)
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