According to the British "Daily Mail" reported on the 17th, although US President Biden publicly declared that he would welcome those Ukrainians who fled the war with "open arms", since the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the United States has only accepted 7 Ukrainian refugees.
Ukrainian refugees
According to Newsweek, at least five Ukrainian refugees entering the United States are being detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and one of them has been transferred to a detention center in Louisiana. In addition, data from the US State Department obtained by Reuters show that the number of Ukrainian refugees accepted by the United States is extremely low. Other Western countries have taken in thousands, if not millions, of refugees.
The Daily Mail notes that one reason Ukrainian refugees have been denied entry to the U.S. is that the U.S. government is enforcing Title 42, which allows for the immediate deportation of migrants during the current health emergency.
Homeland Security Secretary Mayor Kas told reporters Thursday afternoon that Border Patrol agents were reminded that there could be individual exceptions to the Section 42 Act that could apply to Ukrainians arriving at the U.S. southern border. The Daily Mail pointed out that it is estimated that if the "Section 42 Act" is no longer implemented, the United States may soon usher in another wave of large-scale immigration.
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U.S. news site Axios reported Thursday that 170,000 migrants are currently waiting to transit on the Mexican side of the U.S. southern border and will apply for asylum if The Section 42 Act is no longer enforced. An official familiar with the situation told CNN that many of them were just hours away from the border.
According to the Daily Mail, in order to enter the United States, Ukrainians must first obtain tourist visas, which may pose a challenge for those fleeing the war. Because of Mexico's low entry threshold, many Ukrainians wanted to enter the U.S. through the U.S.-Mexico border in the south after Biden's remarks, so they traveled to Mexico first.
In a telephone interview with Newsweek, Alina Kuchenko said her cousin, her husband and three of their young children were detained by ICE in the United States on March 14 when they tried to enter California from Mexico. Another unnamed Ukrainian refugee who tried to cross the southern border was transferred to a detention center in Louisiana, where he has been detained for nearly two weeks.
Ukrainian refugees arriving in Russia
U.S. President Joe Biden maintained Trump-era policies to help quell the country's southern border crisis as immigration reached record levels during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, supporters of immigrant rights have been calling for an end to the enforcement of the Section 42 Act. This week, Ukrainians began arriving in the United States, and there were more and more phone calls seeking immigration applications.
The U.S. government has yet to confirm how many Ukrainian refugees have applied for or been granted asylum. The Department of Homeland Security also did not respond to requests for comment. On the other hand, the United Nations releases data on refugees every four days, while the latest data for March 15 shows that more than 3.1 million people have fled Ukraine.
(Editor: WDQ)