Ukrainians in the U.S. fear being deported to a war zone as uncertainty looms

Ukrainian immigrants who fled the ongoing war with Russia and now live in the U.S. with temporary legal status told NBC News they are terrified they could soon face deportation back to an active war zone. In Ukraine, life as they once knew it has long been bombed away.

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would soon make a decision on whether to revoke temporary legal status of Ukrainians who came to the U.S. during the war. “We’re certainly not looking to hurt them,” he said. “There were some people that think that’s appropriate, and some people don’t and I’ll be making a decision pretty soon.”

Even before his comments, a sense of abandonment and dread had swept through the community given the administration’s targeting of legal programs for immigrants, as well as the growing hostility and withdrawal of support for Ukraine, they said. 

“It’s been like a nightmare. We are scared and we feel uncertain of everything around us,” said Daria, 41, a Ukrainian immigrant and mother of four living in Florida who came to the U.S. after the war started in February 2022. 

Earlier Thursday, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was planning to revoke the temporary legal status of Ukrainians in the U.S. who came during the war. The White House press secretary later pushed back on the report, calling it “fake news” and saying that “no decision has been made at this time.” NBC News has not confirmed the Reuters reporting.

More than 280,000 Ukrainian immigrants resettled in the United States since 2022 through a Biden administration program called Uniting for Ukraine that has provided temporary humanitarian parole, allowing them to work in the country legally and not be at risk of deportation. 

“We felt very, very welcomed here,” said Daria, who asked that her full name not be used out of fear of deportation. “Unfortunately, right now we are not feeling welcomed anymore.” 

Daria said she has been living with anguish that her family could be upended once again and face deportation to a war-torn country where her children’s lives would be at risk.

“We’re not able to go home. Our house was destroyed. It was bombed after we left,” she said.

Maryna, 40, a Ukrainian immigrant who also came through the program, said the immigrant community was “scared because we don’t know when someone can come and deport us out of nowhere.”  

“We live day by day now because we don’t know what will happen tomorrow,” said Maryna, who also asked that her last name be withheld out of fear of deportation. 

Maryna came to the U.S. with her husband and three children; she now also has a 2-year-old who was born here. “Everyone is looking for any ways to stay here, because the war is not over,” she said, “and even if the war stopped now there will still be danger to go back there.”

Some immigrants — including Daria and Maryna — also have Temporary Protected Status (TPS), another form of immigration relief that is granted to those in the U.S. who can’t return to their countries because of natural disasters or political upheaval.

TPS for Ukrainians was set to expire in April, before the Biden administration extended it to October 2026. But Trump has targeted that program as well, and Maryna said immigrants are unclear as to what legal programs would potentially keep them safe. 

Trump issued an executive order on his first day back in office directing the government to “terminate all categorical parole programs” that were contrary to the administration’s goals. Following the order, the administration announced it was no longer accepting applications for the Uniting for Ukraine program as it reviewed all parole programs.

The administration then also moved to revoke TPS for hundreds of thousands of people from Venezuela and Haiti living in the United States. 

The anxiety for Ukrainian immigrants only increased after Trump’s recent attacks on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the decision to pause military aid to Ukraine.

The change in U.S. policy came as a shock and has left the community feeling hurt and betrayed, said Ivan Makar, the principal of the Self-Reliance Saturday School of Ukrainian Studies. The school is in the heart of New York City’s Little Ukraine neighborhood, where many families have loved ones who are in the United States through the parole program.

“We’re very upset, we’re in disbelief and horror,” he said.

Makar said Trump’s decisions have left the Ukrainian community throughout the United States fearful — especially those who were fleeing the war and do not know if or when they could face deportation. 

“If they do send them back, where are they going? Back to war? They don’t have houses anymore,” he said. “Their places have been demolished. I mean, where do they go?”