US suspends migrant entry programmes, including Ukrainians

Refugees from Ukraine, photo: ShutterStock

Officials at the US Department of Homeland Security have ordered the suspension of a number of programmes that allowed refugees to temporarily settle in the US, including a key initiative that provides entry to the country for Ukrainians.

The New York Times reports this with reference to an email from the migration agency.

The directive contained in the email requires that «immediately stop making» final decisions on applications related to these programmes while the administration reviews them and decides whether to terminate them.

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The newspaper writes that the scale of the programmes mentioned in this pause is enormous, and this decision will block the entry of immigrants fleeing «the most unstable and desperate places in the world» — Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela, among others.

The NYT reminds that administration officials have said that President Trump believes that many of these programmes were never legal to begin with.

The programmes include «Unite for Ukraine», a Biden-era initiative that allowed Ukrainian immigrants to temporarily enter the United States if they had financial sponsors.

According to the government, as of September 2023, more than 150,000 Ukrainians had entered the US under this programme.

As a reminder, US President Donald Trump has announced his intention to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the possibility of ending the war in Ukraine.

It is also worth noting that Donald Trump urged Putin to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine, promising to increase sanctions and tariffs against Russia in case of refusal. Donald Trump said that «does not want to harm Russia» because «loves the Russian people and has always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin».