DHS grants protected status to Ukrainians in U.S.

The Homeland Security Department granted Temporary Protected Status to Ukrainians in the U.S. on Thursday, giving both illegal immigrants and those here on short-term visas a chance to remain and work for up to 18 months amid their country’s chaos.

Anyone in the U.S. by the start of this month is eligible. Advocacy groups figure about 30,000 people are likely to be eligible.

“In these extraordinary times, we will continue to offer our support and protection to Ukrainian nationals in the United States,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.

The Washington Times reported earlier this week that former high-level immigration officials had been pressing for the move, as had Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill and immigrant-rights advocates off the hill.

“Protecting Ukrainian families from deportation is the least we can do amid a Russian onslaught that has targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service said Thursday, after the announcement.

TPS is a tentative legal status that can be renewed. Indeed, some Central Americans have been living under the temporary protection for more than two decades after natural disasters struck their nations around the turn of the century.

Those in the country illegally can apply, as can those here on short-term visas. Experts said most Ukrainians are likely to be in the latter category.

The goal of TPS is to protect them from having to return to rough conditions, and to give the country itself space to recover before facing an influx of returnees.

Emilio Gonzalez, a former head of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services who’d been pressing for the Ukraine designation, called the country’s condition a “classic” example of why TPS exists.

The European Commission earlier this week published its own proposal for protected status for Ukrainians within its jurisdiction.

Homeland Security has also reportedly halted deportations to Ukraine.

Ukraine is the latest country to be granted TPS by the Biden administration. On Wednesday Mr. Mayorkas announced TPS for Sudan and renewed an already existing TPS grant for South Sudan.

TPS is not free of controversy.

Once granted, it has proved difficult to revoke the status for some countries. Honduras and El Salvador have been under TPS for more than two decades, with more than 250,000 people having lived here under what was supposed to be a temporary gesture.