Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportations
President Donald Trump’s administration is planning to revoke temporary legal status for some 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the conflict with Russia, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said, 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 Biden’s administration.The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians was underway before Trump publicly feuded with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 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 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 eff...