Ukrainian refugees mistakenly told they must leave US in email mix-up
Ukrainians living in the U.S legally received an email in error on Friday from the Department of Homeland Security, telling them that their parole status had been revoked and that they must self-deport immediately, according to a Trump administration official.
It wasn't immediately clear how many people received the email notification, which caused widespread panic among people who fled the Russian invasion and have been on edge since President Donald Trump said last month that he may revoke their temporary legal residency status.
As of yet, the U.S. has not terminated the temporary parole status granted to 240,000 Ukrainians who fled the war under President Joe Biden, said Tricia McLaughlin, a DHS spokesperson.
The move to reverse it — which has been telegraphed by the White House in recent months — will potentially place hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians on track to be quickly deported.
The email, first reported by
Migrant Insider
, spurred immediate confusion as lawmakers began to receive calls from constituents about the notifications.
Many Ukrainians were already bracing for such a directive from the Trump administration — part of the broader effort to strip legal status from nearly 2 million people who were allowed to stay in the U.S. through temporary humanitarian parole programs under Biden.
Trump has already ordered the end of parole status for about 530,000 Venezuelans, Cubans and Haitians and said last month that he was considering doing the same for Ukrainians, who were part of a wave of refugees who fled at the start of the war.
'We're not looking to hurt anybody, we're certainly not looking to hurt them, and I'm looking at that,' Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last month when asked about revoking Ukrainians' status. 'There were some people that think that's appropriate, and some people don't, and I'll be making the decision pretty soon.'
The DHS spokesperson did not say whether a final determination had been made, and when the notifications were intended to go out.
On his first day in office, Trump called on DHS officials to 'terminate all categorical parole programs' as part of a slew of immigration executive orders. He also paused admissions under the program for Ukrainians, Uniting for Ukraine, soon after he took office in January — barring those already in the U.S. from renewing their two-year protections and work permits and halting new admissions.
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