SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — President Trump announced Thursday that he will soon decide whether to revoke legal protections for thousands of Ukrainian refugees now living in the United States.
For Oksana, a Ukrainian mother living in San Diego, the uncertainty is overwhelming.
“I don’t see a future for my country without war,” she said. Oksana and her family fled Kharkiv, a city near the Russian border that has endured relentless attacks. They arrived in March 2022. After nearly three years, they’ve worked hard to rebuild their lives.
“It took a long time…when we arrived, my kids were just 5 and 13 years old,” she said. Now, she fears what would happen if they were forced to return.
“It’s a horrible situation," she said.
Oksana is here legally under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) — a designation that provides legal status to immigrants from war-torn nations. Immigration attorney Jacob Sapochnick explains that revoking TPS would be challenging.
“I find it very hard to believe they’d cancel TPS,” he said. “Cancelling TPS requires legislation, maybe even a vote in Congress.”
Sapochnick says while those with TPS have more protection for now, the future is less certain for the more than 250,000 Ukrainian refugees here under the ‘Uniting for Ukraine’ program.
"Uniting for Ukraine is essentially a simple order that could be issued or canceled...just the way Biden created it," he said.
In the last few months, the Trump administration has rolled back several similar Biden-era migration programs.
Sapochnick says those Uniting for Ukraine program might be able to strengthen their protections by applying for a green card through employment, marriage or other avenues.
