US President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to revoke the legal status of more than 240,000 Ukrainians who fled from the war with Russia, sources have claimed.
This dramatic policy shift could put these refugees on a fast-track to deportation, a senior Trump official and three sources familiar with the matter said.
The move, expected as soon as April, would mark a stark reversal of the welcome Ukrainians received under President Joe Biden's administration.
The planned rollback for Ukrainians is part of a wider Trump administration effort to strip legal status from more than 1.8 million migrants.
US President Donald Trump plans to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians who fled war, sources claim
REUTERS
US Department of Homeland Security spokesman Tricia McLaughlin said the department had no announcements at this time.
The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians was already underway before Trump publicly feuded with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office last week.
Migrants who lose their parole status could face expedited deportation proceedings, according to an internal ICE email.
For those who entered through legal ports of entry without being officially "admitted" to the US - as with those on parole - there is no time limit on their rapid removal.
This differs from immigrants who cross the border illegally, who can only be put into expedited removal for two years after entry.
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Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky clashed at the White House last week in an extraordinary Oval Office meetingREUTERSIt comes after a Trump executive order issued on January 20 called for the Department of Homeland Security to "terminate all categorical parole programmes".
These individuals were allowed to enter the US under temporary humanitarian parole programmes launched during Biden's presidency.
The Biden programmes were designed to create temporary legal pathways to deter illegal immigration whilst providing humanitarian relief.
Beyond the 240,000 Ukrainians, these programmes covered approximately 530,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans and also included more than 70,000 Afghans escaping the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
The Ukrainian removal plans differ from those of immigrants who cross the border illegally, who can only be put into expedited removal for two years after entry
REUTERS
An additional 1 million migrants scheduled border crossings via an app known as CBP One.
Thousands more had access to smaller programmes, including family reunification parole for certain people in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Trump had pledged during his campaign to end these Biden initiatives, arguing they exceeded the bounds of US law.
