The Biden adm♒inistration offered humanitarian relief to Ukrainians in the United States on Thursday, which could protect thousands from being deported to their war-torn homeland.
Ukrainians can remain in the country for up to 18 months under the federal pro🐭gramme known as Temporary Protected Status.
In order to be eligi🧔ble for the protection, individuals would have to have been in the US since at least Tuesday.
The administration said the decision was made because of the Russian invasion into Ukraine, which marks the largest c🔯onventional military action in Europe since World War II.ꦺ
The invasion has caused a humanitarian crisis that has caused more♍ than 1 million people to flee.
“Russia's premeditated and unprovoked attack on Ukraine has resulted in an ongoing war, senseless violence” that has forced Ukrainians “to seek refuge in other countries,” Homeland Security Secretary ღAlejandro N. Mayorkas said.
As many as 30,000 Ukrainians🔜 in the United States may benefit, according to the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think🌠 tank.
Pressure had been mounting on the Biden administration from lawmakers from both parties, inꦰcluding the Senate's top Democrat, to grant the status to Ukrainians.
Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-New York, said: “Ukrainians around the world are experiencing the fear andℱ uncertainty caused by President Putin's premeditated and unprovoked invasion of their country."
“I applaud President Biden for taking decisive action so that U✤krainians can stay safely in America," he said in a statemeꦡnt.
New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committ﷽ee, said “after a week of Vladimir Putin's illegal and ruthless war against the people of Ukraine," it was the right thing to do.
He said he was heartened 🤪that “President Biden is once again making clear the Uni🐼ted States will not relent in its support for the people of Ukraine in this dark moment in history."
Refugee advocates also applauded the move. More than 177 organizatio🍬ns signed a letter sent to the administration last week reꩵquesting Ukrainians be offered the relief.
Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, called it “a concrete show of solidarity with the Ukrain൲ian people.
Protecting Ukrainian families from deportation is the least we can do amid a Russian onslaught that has targeted civilians and civilian infrastructur𒁃e."
Citizens from a dozen countries are in the United States under the programme designated for people fleeing ongoing armed conflict, environmental disasters, or extraordinar🦩y and temporary conditions.
