Nearly 200,000 Ukrainians in the U.S. Caught in Legal Limbo as Trump’s Immigration Actions Slow Renewals

Sources familiar with the matter say nearly 200,000 Ukrainians in the United States have been pushed into legal uncertainty because of recent immigration actions under former President Donald Trump.

Katerina Holizdra has already spent six months waiting in limbo. She believes she can hold on for another six, hoping for clarity about the fate of the humanitarian program that allowed roughly 260,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war to live and work in the U.S.

When her legal status expired in May, the 35-year-old automatically became vulnerable to deportation. She lost her work permit and had to leave her job as a manager at the Ritz-Carlton in Fort Lauderdale, where she earned more than $50,000 a year. She also lost her health insurance, which she relied on for monitoring a liver condition, and said she can no longer send money to support her mother in Germany, who has since become homeless.

According to internal U.S. government data reviewed by Reuters, nearly 200,000 Ukrainians could lose their legal status by March 31 because the Trump administration has significantly slowed processing for renewals under the humanitarian program launched by former Democratic President Joe Biden. The scale of the backlog has not been previously reported.

The program, created in April 2022, granted two years of temporary permission to come to the U.S. It covers only a small share of the 5.9 million Ukrainian refugees worldwide, most of whom are in Europe.

Holizdra says she still has no idea when—or whether—her status will be renewed, leaving her sense of safety in the U.S. increasingly fragile.
While she waits for an update on her application, immigration experts say she could technically be detained at any time.
“It feels like I’ve been running on a hamster wheel for six months,” she said. “It’s constant stress and anxiety. If I’m forced to leave, I’ll have to rebuild everything from scratch.”

Reuters interviewed two dozen Ukrainians who lost their jobs after their work permits expired due to processing delays. They included tech workers, preschool teachers, financial planners, interior designers, and college students. Many said they are draining their savings, borrowing money, and relying on community support while waiting for decisions.

Some fear they could be arrested by immigration authorities. Others rarely leave their homes—or have left the U.S. entirely for Canada, Europe, or South America.
Returning to Ukraine is not an option for most. Holizdra’s home in Bucha burned down during Russia’s assault on the city in March 2022. After Ukrainian forces retook the area, they discovered hundreds of civilian bodies, many showing signs of execution.

Trump’s Shifting Ukraine Policy

The Trump administration halted new applications and renewals in January, citing security concerns. After a contentious Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump said in March he was considering ending Ukrainians’ legal status altogether—an idea Reuters first reported.
He ultimately kept the program, and a federal judge ordered the government to restart renewals in May. But since then, immigration officials have processed only about 1,900 renewal applications across all nationalities—just a fraction of those at risk.

A spending bill Trump signed in July added a $1,000 fee for humanitarian applications, on top of an existing $1,325 fee per person.

DHS did not respond to requests for comment.

Representative Mike Quigley, a Democrat from the Chicago area, said his office has received more than 200 requests from Ukrainians trapped in administrative limbo.
“The fear is that if they haven’t completed their applications or gone through the full process, they could be deported,” he said.

Anne Smith, executive director of the Ukraine Immigration Task Force, said her legal network is hearing weekly about Ukrainians detained by immigration authorities—sometimes while working construction, delivering food, or driving for Uber or trucking companies. Large-scale arrests have also occurred in Chicago and Greater Cleveland, she said.

Brian Snyder, a product marketing manager in Raleigh, North Carolina, who sponsors three Ukrainian families, said people who follow the rules are being punished by the system.
He recalled a Ukrainian woman asking whether he would serve as her emergency contact if she were detained. In another family he knew, only a teenage son had his parole renewed, while the parents and younger children remained in limbo.

“This confusion and uncertainty is putting enormous stress on these families,” he said.

Some Ukrainians Choose to ‘Self-Deport’

Six of the 24 Ukrainians interviewed have already left the U.S., choosing departure over the risk of detention or being sent to distant countries like those in Latin America or Africa—an approach the Trump administration has used for others who are difficult to deport.

Yevhenii Padafa, a 31-year-old software engineer who moved to Brooklyn in September 2023, applied to renew his status in March. His application remained pending until it expired in September.
Worried he might be barred from re-entering the U.S. in the future, Padafa tried to “self-deport” using a government app called CBP One.

In May, the administration promised a free outbound plane ticket and a $1,000 “exit bonus” to those using the app.
Padafa decided to go to Argentina, which has lower living costs and a humanitarian program for Ukrainians. But the app wouldn’t book him a ticket to Buenos Aires. A border officer told him he would need to fly directly to Ukraine instead.

Believing he would still receive the free flight and bonus, he left anyway. When he reached Buenos Aires in mid-November with limited money, he planned to sell a laptop to cover his first month’s rent.

“If I go back to Ukraine, I’ll end up on the frontline,” he said. “I would rather be homeless somewhere else than go back to war.”