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In the first months after Russia’s invasion, thousands of people from Ukraine fled to the United States by reaching a U.S. border, where most were paroled into the country for one year.
Those Ukrainians have in recent months been nervously watching their humanitarian parole status tick down with growing anxiety, fearing their ability to stay and work as the war moves into its second year.
This week the Biden Administration said it would extend that status for eligible Ukrainians, fueling waves of relief for families with no safe options for returning home.
“We were so nervous,” Anna Krasnova, 31, whose parole was set to expire in April, a year after arriving with her husband and two 5-year-old boys at the Mexico border, told USA TODAY.
She’s grateful for the added breathing room. But she’s now hoping she can win asylum in a backlogged U.S. immigration system before the extension expires again.
“One year goes quickly,” she said.
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How many Ukrainians does the extension impact?
The change allows about 25,000 Ukrainians paroled into the United States at a port of entry from Feb. 24 through April 25 last year to be considered for an extension, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Those arrivals were generally granted parole for one year. By contrast, Ukrainians who came in later after the Biden Administration’s Uniting for Ukraine program began generally got two years of humanitarian parole.
As of last month, about 110,000 Ukrainians had arrived in the U.S. as part of Uniting for Ukraine, which requires them to have a U.S. sponsor. Another 35,000 had been approved for arrival. Another 151,000 Ukrainians have entered the United States through other immigration channels since March 24 last year, according to DHS.
“This process will provide critical relief to thousands of Ukrainians who’ve been facing tremendous anxiety and uncertainty about their future here,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said on Twitter.
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How does it help Ukrainians seeking to stay?
Many of those who arrived early had worried that without such an extension, they would lack timely options for a status allowing them to remain in the United States.
Asylum claims, for example, can take months or years in a backlogged system and require documentation of a well-founded fear of persecution.
The uncertainty was also difficult for the businesses that employ newly arrived Ukrainians and need to make sure they are properly authorized to remain in the country.
“They won’t hire you if you have only two months to work” before parole expires, said Krasnova, who now lives in Rochester, New York.
In addition, many worried about interrupting schooling for children or ongoing medical care, said California resident Inna Levien, originally from Belarus, who spent months last year volunteering to aid Ukrainians arriving in Tijuana and continues to help them.
“This is a huge relief for everybody,” she told USA TODAY.
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What’s next?
Those who fall into the category don’t need to file an application. The department will review cases of Ukrainians among those who qualify over the next four weeks to vet them for the extension, starting with those who came to the U.S. earliest.
But they’re not the only group paroled into the U.S. on humanitarian grounds with uncertain futures. Uniting for Ukraine arrivals are also beginning to eye the expiration of their two-year paroles, advocates have said.
Some have no homes to return to or see dwindling hopes for the war ending anytime soon, said Krasnova, who is from Donetsk and formerly worked as a lawyer.
In addition to Ukrainians, the first of nearly 70,000 Afghans who entered under similar parole when the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan will see those protections expire as soon as this summer, Vignarajah noted.
She urged the Biden Administration to “not wait until the brink to extend critical humanitarian protections” and to create a plan that helps beneficiaries access pathways to a longer-term immigration status.
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Contributing: Associated Press
Chris Kenning is a national correspondent. Reach him at ckenning@usatoday.com and on Twitter @chris_kenning.
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