Crossing the US border from Mexico was simplified for Ukrainians: they are not deported and are allowed to stay for a year

At the Mexican border, US Customs and Border Protection is allowing Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion to enter the United States and stay there for a year without fear of deportation, reports Times of San Diego.

Photo: Shutterstock

Several Ukrainians reported that they passed through a checkpoint in Tijuana this week and received permission to remain in the country until 2023.

A former U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official said U.S. authorities are providing Ukrainians with a one-year temporary "humanitarian parole".

CBP and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees the border agency, did not respond to requests for comment. In the past, DHS has stated that all border parole decisions are made on a case-by-case basis.

The Ukrainians said they traveled through a number of countries to reach the United States, where they hope to find refuge, stay with relatives and rebuild their lives.

Alex Mak, a 24-year-old Ukrainian who declined to give his full name for fear of persecution, said authorities stamped his passport allowing him to stay for a year.

“It's a crazy situation. Your life just stops,” he said after waiting more than an hour in the sun in Tijuana to cross the border on March 15. “You can’t plan work because of the war, you don’t have it, you can’t work.”

Alex described how he was supposed to return to Kyiv on February 25 from a trip to Uganda, but was advised by friends not to do so when Russia started the war a day earlier.

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More than 3 million Ukrainians have fled the fighting, according to the UN, and most have taken refuge in neighboring countries. At least 310 people have flown into Tijuana this month, according to Jesús Ruiz Uribe, the Mexican government's spokesman for Baja California State.

The US-Mexico border has been closed to most asylum seekers under a pandemic-era policy known as Section 42, but Ukrainians have said they were let through the border. More than two dozen Ukrainians were recorded arriving in the United States on March 15 and 16.

“I need temporary protection,” Alex said. Until the war ends. I know I don't want to be a refugee."

This month, a group of Democratic lawmakers called on U.S. President Joe Biden to increase refugee admissions and allow Ukrainians with family members in the U.S. to enter more quickly with humanitarian parole rights.

"Miracle"

Vera Krasiuk, who fled the besieged southern city of Nikolaev with her family, said some Russians at the border crossing in Tijuana told her that Ukrainians would be given priority to enter the United States if they showed their passports.

Krasyuk said the attacks by the Russian military on the first day of the conflict were so close to her home that her family could hear them. After collecting some things, she, her husband and daughter made their way first to Moldova, then to Romania, before reaching Mexico by plane.

“My parents stayed at home,” she said.

After being interrogated by US Immigration officials, the family was allowed into the United States. The DHS stamp on her passport stated that she could stay in the United States for a year.

Krasyuk recalls how the official took her family to the side of the San Isidro border, returned their passports and wished them all the best.

Mexico also registered an increase in the number of Russian migrants leaving their homeland amid rising tensions.

Marina Sokolovskaya, a US citizen who left Ukraine with her cousin and her child, moved her family to the United States, making the difficult journey through Poland, Croatia, Hungary, Amsterdam and Mexico City, and then Tijuana.

“It was like a miracle that four hours later they let us in, including the baby,” said Sokolovskaya, 35, who acts as a sponsor for her relatives in the United States.

According to Sokolovskaya, a qualified dentist by a Beverly Hills-based video production company, the mother and child were allowed to stay for a year.

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Sokolovskaya said she went to Lvov to pick up her relatives. Her cousin's husband left to fight, and the area where she lived near Kiev was attacked by Russian troops.

“It was crazy, she was so afraid,” Sokolovskaya said of her cousin. “She said they were out of food.”

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