JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An indefinite freeze on processing immigration applications has thousands of Ukrainian refugees living in Florida, including the hundreds in Jacksonville, feeling nervous about their legal immigration status.
“There are people who have applied for this temporary protective status and now that’s frozen so once their Unit for Ukraine sponsorship time runs out, which is very soon for a lot of these people, they suddenly have no legal status here,” said Valentina Carrol, a first-generation Ukrainian American who volunteers at a local church that services Ukrainian refugees.
Carroll and her family currently sponsor a Ukrainian refugee that News4JAX will only identify as Irena. They said things were going fine until the United States indefinitely froze immigration applications for Ukrainians. Irena is still learning English, so Carroll had to translate as Irena spoke with News4JAX.
RELATED: Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters says legal immigrants should not be afraid of DeSantis’ new council
Irena was asked how she feels as she pays close attention to news about the immigration freeze.
“She’s very afraid. She and her family are all very afraid and nervous because they’re seeking refuge in America. This is where they are experiencing safety, and they don’t know what is waiting for them back in Ukraine,” said Carrol who was translating for Irena.
The Trump administration said the immigration freeze is in place so that government officials can work to identify fraud. The administration also said this will lead to an enhanced immigration vetting process to assure public safety. The freeze is affecting Ukrainian refugees who came to America under the Unite for Ukraine program and Ukrainian immigrants who were seeking extensions for temporary protective status. While the freeze is in effect, refugees can’t apply for an extension to remain in the US once their legal immigration authorization expires. This means they would no longer be legally allowed to remain in the US and forced to leave.
“Even though they have done everything right and tried to apply for these statuses and programs, all of a sudden, they are undocumented, and they don’t have that status. They would have to leave America and potentially go back to this war zone in Ukraine, said Carroll.
Dymtro Bozhko is also worried about fellow Ukrainians in Florida who right now can’t apply to stay longer in the US. He migrated to Florida before Russia invaded his home city in Ukraine.
“It feels like a betrayal. I’m a green card holder so not a citizen yet. I hope I’m on the way, but it feels like a betrayal because people trusted the government of the United States. They came here not voluntarily. They came here because they were pushed out of their homes in Ukraine by an aggressor,” Bozhko said.
And now they may find themselves being pushed out once again, but this time by the country that took them in.