As Russia rained rockets on Kharkiv, Paterson business owner Israel Kraut was searching for help for an employee who had just fled Ukraine’s second-largest city with her 9-month-old baby.
The employee, who works remotely in design and graphics, escaped on a train to Slovenia and is now safe with her child. But her husband remains in Ukraine due to restrictions barring men under 60 from leaving.
“I’m definitely concerned,” said Kraut, the owner of Sapphire Bath, a home improvement business. “She is in a better situation now, but her husband is still stuck. I’m hoping to hear the next steps of what we can do to get her over here to America and to get her here with her husband.”
Across New Jersey, home to one of the nation’s largest Ukrainian communities, family and friends like Kraut worry over Ukrainian connections trying to survive the brutal Russian military invasion. Some hope they can find safety in the U.S.
But as war victims worldwide have learned, the pathways for refugees to come here are narrow and complex.
There are, however, ways that the U.S. could widen paths for Ukrainians now trapped in Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since World War II.
One key step happened March 3, when the Biden Administration announced that Ukrainians temporarily living or studying in the U.S. could apply for Temporary Protected Status. TPS is granted when one’s country is deemed unsafe for return, but it only applies to Ukrainians who were already in the country as of March 1.
Will the U.S. take Ukrainian refugees?
More than 2.5 million Ukrainians have fled to neighboring countries including Poland, Hungary and Moldova since the Russian invasion. Gov. Phil Murphy has said that New Jersey “stands ready and able” to accept refugees from the crisis.
New Jersey is home to about 57,600 people of Ukrainian ancestry, according to 2019 U.S. Census data.
For now, White House officials say most refugees are expected to stay in Europe where they have been welcomed and where they can work and return home if that becomes possible. The U.S. could play a role in future resettlement, but that won’t mean immediate relief.
Refugee cases take years to process, a problem worsened by COVID delays and a decision by former President Donald Trump decision to slash admissions. That led some agencies to close offices and cut staff. Today, thousands with pending cases are waiting for placement.
Now, advocates are calling on the U.S. to invest more resources in the refugee program and expand admissions for Ukrainians, as well as other displaced people.
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Another possible route for Ukrainians is humanitarian parole, which is granted in cases of compelling emergency. It’s typically given for reasons like medical treatment or attending a funeral, but the U.S. can determine that other situations constitute “urgent humanitarian reasons” to allow individuals to enter temporarily.
Parole programs have been created in the past for Cuban and Haitian family reunification. A majority of the Afghans evacuated last summer, when the U.S. withdrew forces, were admitted with humanitarian parole – although there have also been complaints about denials and a high burden of proof.
“[Parole] may be an important vehicle for people to come here,” said Leena Khandwala, an attorney at the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Rutgers Law School. “You can petition for yourself. If you have a family member in the U.S., they can petition for that person. One of the key requirements is financial support or proof of a financial sponsor.”
Individuals in the U.S. or at a point of entry also can apply for asylum, but they must show good reason why they personally fear persecution, which is often difficult to prove, Khandwala said.
The Lautenberg advantage
Ukrainian refugees have benefited from the Lautenberg Amendment, named for former Sen. Frank Lautenberg from New Jersey. Established in 1990, it permits members of protected religious minorities from former Soviet republics to join relatives in the U.S. as refugees.
Christians, Jews and Bahai are among groups covered by the amendment and they do not have to demonstrate specific or personal fear of persecution as do other refugees.
The U.S. could help Ukraine by expediting pending applications, which typically take three to five years to approve, said the Rev. Seth Kaper-Dale. He runs a resettlement office in Highland Park that is working on 35 Lautenberg cases.
“Why not immediately, in a show of good faith, expedite all the Lautenberg cases that have been sitting in the files?” Kaper-Dale said. “There’s no reason not to have every one of these files approved.”
The U.S. State Department could not provide the number of pending applications, but a spokesman said that resettlement staff was helping people who completed processing to depart.
He said there was “limited capacity” because of the conflict, which forced the closure of the Ukraine office that handled these cases and a relocation to Moldova.
More than 14,000 Ukrainians have settled in the U.S. under the Lautenberg Amendment in the past five fiscal years, the spokesman added. But Congress has not yet reauthorized the Lautenberg Amendment for 2022 to permit new applications.
How to get help
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is offering extra support to Ukrainians on a case-by-case basis. That includes possible fee waivers, rescheduling of missed appointments and quicker processing of certain applications, the agency announced on March 4.
“When you request help, please explain how the impact of the extreme situations or unforeseen circumstances, such as the invasion of Ukraine, created a need for the requested relief,” the agency advised online.
People should take advantage of legal aid and programs to help with applications for Ukrainians, said Khandwala, of the Rutgers Immigrant Rights Clinic. The Immigration Advocates Network lists New Jersey nonprofits offering legal services on its website.
“Seek legal help because the immigration landscape in the U.S. is very, very complex,” she said. “It is very hard to navigate this process on your own. You might know one avenue but be better suited for another that you wouldn’t know of unless you were immersed in the law.”
Family members can also reach out to members of Congress for assistance, Khandwala added.
“There could be ways in which you file a petition for a relative and work with USCIS or even your congressional representatives to have those applications expedited in emerging situations. That has been successful [in the past],” she said.
Congress intervenes
New Jersey lawmakers are already receiving such requests. About half a dozen people seeking to bring family to New Jersey have reached out to Rep. Bill Pascrell, the Paterson Democrat whose congressional district includes Ukrainian communities in Passaic and Clifton.
On Friday, Pascrell wrote to President Joe Biden calling on him to “rapidly and significantly increase the number of refugees,” especially Ukrainians. Around 6,500 refugees of all backgrounds have been admitted to the U.S. five months into the federal budget year, far short of Biden’s goal to take in 125,000. That does not include 76,000 Afghans who came in last year’s mass evacuation in August after the U.S. ended its 20-year war in the country.
The administration should expedite the refugee resettlement process for those fleeing Russia’s invasion, especially people with family ties in the U.S., Pascrell wrote.
While political support to take in Ukrainian refugees runs high, for many families it’s simply too soon to think about bringing relatives here. For now, they are focused on survival.
Oleh Pravda, a Jersey City resident who came from Ukraine in 2015, fears for his parents, who were home in Kharkiv as the city was bombarded by Russian air attacks.
“They had to leave because much of the city was being destroyed,” Pravda, a political science student at New Jersey City University, said in an interview. “They left the city worried they might not survive. Much of that neighborhood was affected by shelling. Most of the neighbors left. We don’t have any idea what happened to their apartment complex.”
His parents had lived in the city for 40 years, he said. They fled to stay with his aunt in the Poltava region of the country about a week after Russian forces invaded. They don’t want to leave, but they don’t know what will happen next.
“Leaving the country doesn’t seem to be feasible at the moment,” Pravda said. “It’s extremely hard.”
Hannan Adely is a diversity reporter covering Arab and Muslim communities for NorthJersey.com, where she focuses on social issues, politics, bias and civil rights. To get unlimited access to the latest news, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @adelyreporter
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