The Trump administration is preparing to revoke the temporary legal status of 240,000 Ukrainians who fled to the U.S. from Russia's invasion, potentially paving the way for their deportation, Reuters reported on March 6, citing four undisclosed sources.
The plan predates U.S. President Donald Trump's public spat with President Volodymyr Zelensky on Feb. 28 and is part of broader efforts to revoke the legal status of more than 1.8 million people staying in the U.S. on humanitarian grounds, the news agency noted.
The move, which is expected as soon as April, would nevertheless threaten to further widen the rift between Kyiv and Washington after the U.S. paused military assistance and intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt later dismissed the Reuters report as "fake news," claiming that no decision had been made.
“This is more fake news from Reuters, based on anonymous sources who have no idea what they are talking about,” she wrote on X.
Around 5.2 million Ukrainian refugees remain abroad, with the vast majority of them receiving protection in EU countries.
Migrants stripped of the humanitarian parole, granted as part of the Biden administration's programs, could be fast-tracked for deportations, Reuters reported, citing an internal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) document.
Immigration has been one of the key topics of Trump's electoral campaign as he pledged to bolster border security and tighten immigration rules. His first days in office were followed by announcements of large-scale deportations of undocumented migrants, though data suggests the rate is comparable to Biden's years.
The Trump administration began rolling back the protection of Ukrainian and other refugees mere days after taking office. The Uniting for Ukraine program, which allowed Ukrainians to stay in the U.S. for up to two years, work, and receive health insurance, was suspended by late January.
Eerik Kross
(Updated: )
