Ukrainian refugees outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, 31 January 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE / JIM LO SCALZO

The Trump administration is planning to cancel the temporary refugee status granted to almost a quarter of a million Ukrainians who came to the United States following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine three years ago, Reuters reported on Thursday.

The move is understood to be part of the Trump administration’s efforts to strip some 1.8 million migrants of the legal status they obtained through humanitarian programmes launched under the Biden administration.

As well as the 240,000 Ukrainian refugees being stripped of their status, the administration also has its sights on the more than 70,000 Afghans who fled to the US to escape the Taliban following the withdrawal of the US military from the country in 2021.

The planned rollback of protections for Ukrainians was underway before US President Donald Trump’s angry showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office on Friday, Reuters said.

However, the move only represents more bad news for embattled Ukrainians as its relations with Washington continue to deteriorate. On Wednesday, Washington confirmed the end of both military and intelligence assistance to Kyiv.

Fear of deportation now compounds the existing uncertainty felt by the Ukrainian community in the US. Reuters cited Ukrainian woman Liana Avetisian, whose family fled Kyiv in May 2023 and whose work permit allowing her to stay in the US expires in May, who said that her family had spent thousands of dollars attempting to renew its visa by applying for Temporary Protected Status, though she readily admitted “We don’t know what to do”.

Tom Jawetz, who worked under the Biden administration as an immigration official in the Department of Homeland Security, told CBS news that “Targeting people who came to the US with sponsors and continue to play by the rules isn't just gratuitously cruel, but it will make our system more chaotic.”