In a major decision last month, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Trump administration, allowing the Department of Homeland Security to end Temporary Protected Status for hundreds of thousands of refugees from Haiti and Syria, who may now be forced to leave the country.
With their TPS set to expire in the fall, Ukrainians here in Arizona and around the country are worried they’re next, even as the war back home shows no signs of ending.
Originally from the town of Cherkasy in central Ukraine, Anna Ivashchenko had moved to the capital Kyiv when the Russian invasion began in 2022.
"Nobody expected, first of all, that it's going to happen, and secondly, that it's going to — to be for so long," she said.
Ivashchenko was able to get out, eventually arriving 6,000 miles away here in Arizona.
“When I left Kyiv, I thought that I'm going to come back to — to my job, to my business, to — my apartment. But it never happened," she said.
So, she started a new life, working for Lutheran Social Services helping other refugees resettle in Arizona. That was, until recently when they lost funding and had to let her go.
"It's really stressful now because our authorization's going to expire soon. There's no extension, no renewal. We don't know what is going to happen to those who are on parole here, but also we don't know what's going to happen to those who have TPS," Ivashchenko said.
Temporary Protected Status was given to Ukrainians shortly after the war and many also found their way to the U.S. under the United for Ukraine or “U for U” initiative which linked refugees with private sponsors.
The U for U program has been paused indefinitely and TPS for Ukrainians is set to expire on Oct. 19. That has her worried.
"We’re applying every year, we’re doing everything we can. We’re working, we are paying taxes, we are paying for our applications. All we need is just documents so we don't have to worry that somebody's going to catch us on the street and deport us," Ivashchenko said.
Orest Jejna is a Scottsdale judge and a member of the Ukrainian-American Bar Association. He says people coming from Ukraine are in a special category due to the war.
“We're in a significant crisis for all of these individuals that came over, whether it be on TPS or on U for U, they're all in this quagmire," he said.
Thousands of Ukrainians like Ivashchenko have settled here in Arizona, and Jejna says their future is uncertain and their options are limited.
"We — we can push the administration, uh, and, and have been pushing the administration to deal with this issue. Uh, but it's — it's, as you can see, and immigration issues in this country are slow in going, other than the fact that people are getting picked up off the streets and being deported," Jejna said.
Ukrainian-born Olya Johnson is a longtime Arizonan and helped found the local group Cactus and Tryzub which provides local support for refugees.
"Most of them are highly educated, highly skilled people that are able to find high-skill jobs. Unfortunately, they are losing jobs not because of the performance, not because of the layoffs, but because the companies legally cannot keep them," Johnson said.
According to Johnson, displaced Ukrainians want to stay in Arizona permanently, but see no path to do so.
"People are losing jobs because they're losing permits to work. People want to stay legally here, people want to pay taxes, people want to develop businesses," Johnson said.
KJZZ reached out to federal immigration officials for comment on the future of temporary protected status for Ukrainians. A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said a renewal decision would be announced at an "appropriate time.” DHS did not provide an interview or elaborate on what Ukrainians here should do in the meantime.
For Ivashchenko, it just adds to the uncertainty.
"We are grateful, really grateful for the United States letting us in and helping us to stay safe. But at the same time, we desperately need a change in this system. We need to understand what is going to happen to us," she said.
With nothing to go back to, she says she just wants to stay here and continue starting her life over.
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