Ukrainian refugees seeking asylum in the US will not be turned away, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas declared this week after reports emerged that border officials were using the Title 42 public health authority to refuse entry to Eastern European refugees along the southern border.
Mayorkas told reporters Thursday that his department has issued guidance reminding authorities that Ukrainian nationals “and everyone else” making so-called “credible fear” claims at the US-Mexico frontier are exempt from Title 42, which allows officials to expedite migrant expulsions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We address an individual’s claim for humanitarian relief as they are presented to us,” Mayorkas said. “We have a number of efforts already underway … to provide humanitarian relief for individuals fleeing a war-torn Ukraine. We are looking at other programs that we can implement to expand the avenues of humanitarian relief.”
Earlier this week, immigration advocates called on the administration to end Title 42 immediately as a handful of Ukrainians seeking asylum were reportedly turned away when attempting to enter the US.
“It looks like there is no policy of the border because the CBP [Customs and Border Protection] officers are making their own rules,” San Diego-based immigration lawyer Jacob Sapochnick told The Post. “They make decisions that decide who was going to enter or who was not. And we have no idea how they determined that.”
In one case, according to Sapochnick, three individuals who left Ukraine a week after the invasion began Feb. 24 tried to cross the US-Mexico border after traveling to Mexico City and were turned away by a CBP officer. The group attempted to cross again in Arizona and was able to apply for asylum there.
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“So it just tells you that you can go to different places, different ports of entry and officers will treat you differently,” the lawyer said.
While the asylum seekers were not explicitly told why they could not enter the US, Sapochnick accused border officials of using Title 42 as an “umbrella.”
“The media is saying that the US is supporting you and they’re welcoming Ukrainians, but at the same time when they actually come to the border, and they get the treatment from CBP that ‘No, you have to go back,’” he said.
Sapochnick said his office has been handling between 12 and 22 inquiries from “mostly” Ukrainians who are “interested in coming in [to the US] or either stuck at the border.”
While the Biden administration has said it will welcome Ukrainian refugees, the immigration lawyer called on the US to take more action, including figuring out a way to identify and expedite pending family petitions.
Other nations have already begun to implement such strategies.
Since January, Canada has received around 7,400 Ukrainian nationals — including people who already had applications in the country’s Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) system before Russia invaded.
For future applications, the IRCC has recommended evacuees use existing pathways and add the keyword “Ukraine2022” for…
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