Ukrainians in US anxious about protections as war rages on – JP

Advocates have held up the U4U program, announced on April 21, 2022, as an innovative and effective program that may mark a turning point in the way the U.S. responds to humanitarian crises. Many advocates said they expect to see the Biden administration take action to prevent these Ukrainians from having to leave the U.S.

But the Department of Homeland Security has yet to publicly announce what that process will look like.

“We know that two years may seem like a long time, but we are a year in, and war’s still waging in Ukraine,” Lee Williams, chief programs officer at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said. “So what happens to the folks that are here?”

Temporary stay

The U4U program allows Ukrainians with willing U.S. sponsors to fly directly to the U.S. and stay and work for up to two years under what’s known as humanitarian parole.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, as of April 18, the department had received approximately 238,000 requests from individuals in the U.S. who wanted to sponsor a Ukrainian citizen as part of the program, and around 125,000 have entered the U.S. through U4U. (More than 179,000 additional Ukrainians have also been permitted to enter the country outside of U4U, such as by requesting to enter via the U.S.-Mexico border or through other visas, according to DHS.)