“The Trump administration is preparing to deport scores of Ukrainians with final deportation orders to their war-torn homeland.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Donald Trump, photo: Getty Images Source: Washington Post, “European Truth”
Details: On Wednesday, the US Department of Justice said in a court filing that the government plans to deport 41-year-old Roman Surovtsev to Ukraine as early as Monday.
Advertising:
His lawyers said it appeared Immigration and Customs Enforcement was trying to deport a “significant number” of Ukrainian citizens, and other detainees were told they would be taken “on military flights to Ukraine or Poland on Monday.”
Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, said the embassy is aware of “approximately 80 Ukrainian citizens” who have a final order of deportation “due to violations of American law.”
According to her, the American authorities are working on logistical measures for the deportation, “taking into account the lack of direct international air connections with Ukraine.”
“It should be noted that deportation is a widely used legal mechanism provided for in the immigration laws of most countries of the world. It is a routine procedure that applies to all foreign citizens and stateless persons who violate the conditions of their stay on the territory of the United States, regardless of their citizenship,” said Stefanishyna.
Surovtsev’s lawyers, Eric Lee and Chris Godshall-Bennett, said they were concerned that Ukrainians and other former Soviet citizens risk being deported without being able to protest deportation.
“Ukraine is a war zone, it is currently in a state of war, and it is likely that any deportees will be forcibly mobilized into the army and sent to the front, where they will face a high probability of death,” the lawyers say.
A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security said that “for operational security reasons, ICE does not confirm future deportation operations” but that Surovtsev “received full due process of law” and that “each detainee receives due process of law and their grievances have been heard.”
If all 80 people are deported, it will be the highest figure in recent years. According to the Immigration Service, 53 Ukrainians were deported from the United States in the 2024 fiscal year.
According to international treaties, officials should not send people to countries where they may be persecuted or tortured. Even vicious criminals should be protected from torture.
But human rights advocates say the Trump administration is pushing the boundaries of those principles by trying to send people with criminal records to countries like South Sudan, which is on the brink of civil war, and now Ukraine.
In the summer, US President Donald Trump told reporters that he was inclined to to allow Ukrainians to stay in the US until the end of the war. “We have many people who came from Ukraine, and we work with them,” he said.
In late January, officials of the US Department of Homeland Security ordered suspend a number of programswhich allowed migrants to settle temporarily in the United States, including a key initiative that allowed Ukrainians to enter the country.