For Ukrainians In The Us, A Last-ditch Effort To Forestall Deportation

Lawmakers afraid the Trump administration will cancel protections for Ukrainian refugees in the United States want the president to consider another option: Do nothing.

The administration has until Oct. 19 to renew or cancel temporary protected status for more than 100,000 Ukrainians in the U.S. who fled the war still ravaging their country. While a number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are hoping President Donald Trump will renew the permission, some also support a backup option — letting the status expire without formally canceling it, triggering an automatic six-month extension.

This would put Ukrainian TPS holders in a “limbo” status that would allow them to stay in the United States for at least six more months. That’s what the White House did when a similar protection expired for Salvadorans in the U.S. in September. Lawmakers representing Salvadoran communities weren’t happy about it — noting that it is unclear if they are allowed to work and study in the United States. But the automatic extension rules out deportations.

“The significant political backlash that would come from the administration trying to deport Ukrainians is a major factor here,” said one congressional aide familiar with bipartisan Ukraine policy conversations on the Hill. “It’s flawed to keep them in a limbo status like El Salvador, but that might be a likely path for the admin.”

The aide, and another person familiar with discussions on the Hill, said that lawmakers have discussed it as a better-than-the-alternative option. Both were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive Ukraine policy conversations.

Putting Ukrainians in this in-between status could help the administration walk a delicate line ahead of the midterms between appeasing immigration hardliners arguing for tighter controls on immigration and preventing the public relations nightmare of deporting thousands of Ukrainians back to a war zone. 

Some hardliners in Congress have pushed for the administration to end all TPS programs, though they don’t name Ukraine specifically — arguing that “temporary” protections that Ukrainians and others benefit from often get extended indefinitely and in turn deprive Americans of jobs. Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) argued in an August Fox News interview that the “TPS process” is putting “America last.”

Other Republicans and many Democrats are putting their weight behind the pushes to extend status.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), a longtime advocate for Ukraine on Capitol Hill, said that she’s urging the administration to extend Ukrainians’ protections, but acknowledged “based on the current policies, it’s hard to see how that happens.”

The White House referred POLITICO to the Department of Homeland Security, which did not directly comment on the future of TPS for Ukrainians.

Zach Kahler, a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which is under DHS, declined to address the TPS issue, but said the agency “is actively processing discretionary re-parole cases, including those for Ukrainians, on a case-by-case basis as the law intends.”

The White House, spooked by loud criticism from anti-immigrant voices in the president’s political coalition, has in recent months trumpeted record deportation numbers. It is simultaneously ensuring that enforcement operations stay out of public view to avoid the kind of public outcry that followed the two January shootings of American citizens in Minneapolis amid immigration arrests.

The continued challenges in the U.S.-Ukraine relationship also appear to be affecting the administration’s stance toward Ukrainian TPS holders. The second individual, who also is familiar with administration discussions on Ukraine policy, said that the Trump administration’s moves to backburner the war in Ukraine factor into its decisions on Ukrainian asylum seekers.

“There’s no incentive to do anything positive for Ukraine right now,” the person said. “Everything with Ukraine functions in line with the broader bilateral relationship, and fundamentally things haven’t changed with Trump.”

The person said letting Ukrainians’ protected status expire was the easiest course of action.

Trump floated cancelling a separate program for Ukrainian refugees in 2025, but backed off in the face of bipartisan backlash. The administration instead stopped taking new applications for the program, which provided a way for Americans to sponsor Ukrainians to come to the United States.

Ukrainians, in many ways, could be prime candidates for TPS renewal. Russian missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian cities continue four years after Moscow sent troops across the border, and the Russian military still controls a wide swath of Ukrainian territory. Support for Ukrainian refugees in the United States remains high among both Democrats and Republicans.

While Banks rejects extending any TPS protections, some other hardline Republicans — including the chair of the House Freedom Caucus — have voiced support for extended status for Ukrainians.

The Trump administration has renewed the protections for one group affected by wars it is engaged in. In May, it renewed for six additional months temporary protected status for Lebanese migrants who fled ongoing conflict between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in the country’s territory.

Trump has disregarded similar conditions in countries that have been a target for deportations, most notably Haiti, where the government is struggling to repel heavily armed gangs in the Caribbean country’s capital, Port-au-Prince. The administration has also ended protections for migrants from war-torn Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, as well as those from unstable countries like Cameroon and Myanmar, which still struggle with insurgencies within their borders.

And Trump continues to make comments that suggest animosity toward Kyiv. As recently as Monday, Trump blamed Ukraine for record-high energy prices.

Some immigration hawks warn the administration risks angering a core section of the president’s political coalition even if it chooses to leave them in limbo, especially after the White House stopped short of ending similar protections for Salvadorans.

“I’m not sure they can get away twice with that,” said Mark Krikorian, the head of the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank in Washington that advocates for greater controls on legal immigration. “People are going to speak up about it and you can expect that people are going to look closely for Ukrainian announcements.”

While the limbo option is being discussed privately, publicly, lawmakers and groups advocating for Ukrainians with TPS are pushing for a full extension.

Many of the arguments for extending TPS for Ukrainians and citizens from other countries have been framed around the impact revoking legal status would have on the U.S. economy.

In a Sept. 22 letter, a bipartisan group of senators, including Shaheen and influential Republican moderates Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, argued to Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin and Secretary of State Marco Rubio that Ukrainian TPS recipients are major parts of the transportation, health care and construction workforces. Revoking their protected status “risks disrupting these industries, increasing costs for American consumers by forcing thousands of experienced workers out of their jobs,” they wrote.

Murkowski joined Cassidy and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) in supporting a bipartisan bill led by Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) that would extend TPS for Ukrainians until 2029.

But much of the Ukraine policy conversation still focuses on ending Russian military operations in Ukraine and securing the equipment and logistical support Kyiv needs to thwart Russian military advances. Many advocacy organizations with deep relationships in Washington are still prioritizing supporting Ukraine’s defense, per the congressional aide.

Ukraine’s government has been silent on the question of TPS for its citizens living in the United States. Ukraine’s embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment about the future of TPS for Ukrainians.