Thousands of Ukrainians who relocated to Michigan after fleeing from war and violence in their home country are now bracing for the possibility of removal from the United States.
Last week, Reuters reported that President Donald Trump’s administration would revoke the legal status of 240,000 Ukrainians currently living in the country under a “humanitarian parole” program. Trump officials disputed the report, but did not rule out the action: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on social media that “no decision has been made at this time.”
Advocates in Michigan’s tight-knit Ukrainian community say uncertainty surrounding the new arrivals’ legal statuses has sparked shock and fear for people who, in many cases, don’t have safe homes to return to.
“We have teachers and children who have had parents killed on the front lines — are you going to send a child back to where her father died?” said Andriy Pereklita of southeast Michigan’s Ukrainian School of Language and Culture.
