The White House has temporarily suspended the review of all immigration applications from citizens of Ukraine and Latin American countries who were previously denied entry under programs of the Joe Biden administration.
Washington has suspended the review of all immigration applications from citizens of Ukraine and Latin American countries who were previously denied entry under programs of former US President Joe Biden. This was reported on Wednesday, February 19, by the American television channel CBS News, citing two officials in the White House and a text of a "service note for internal use".
"According to the directive, the freeze on applications will be in effect indefinitely while government officials work to identify potential cases of fraud and improve the verification process to reduce risks to national and public safety," CBS News writes, noting that this step "threatens to sow uncertainty among many migrants who are in the process of applying for various immigration benefits that would allow them to stay in the United States on legal grounds, and in some cases, forever."
The service note openly accuses the Biden administration of "using conditional parole on an unprecedented scale in order to induce migrants to sign up for legal channels of migration instead of crossing the southern border illegally." Preparations for such a directive were announced on January 25, five days after Donald Trump took office as president.
The decision affects, in particular, the Uniting for Ukraine program, under which, according to CBS News, about 240,000 citizens of Ukraine have entered the United States since the start of the full-scale Russian war, with financial sponsors in the United States.
Other programs of the previous Democratic government affect residents of Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Cuba, who have sponsors in the United States, as well as natives of Central American countries, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, and Cuba, who have relatives in the country. According to one of these programs, 530,000 people have been able to enter the United States, the note says.
Those who managed to enter the United States under these programs received only temporary permission to work and protection from deportation, which usually lasts two years, American lawyers say. According to the directive adopted on February 19, officials can no longer process applications to extend their stay under these programs if they were submitted by people who arrived in the United States "within the framework of Biden administration policy."
Donald Trump signed several anti-immigration decrees on January 20, including a requirement for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prioritize a series of programs that prohibit the entry and temporary stay of foreigners in the United States.
Among other anti-immigration decrees are the introduction of a state of emergency on the border with Mexico, facilitating mass deportation, as well as the termination of the mobile application CBP One, with which it was possible to sign up to apply for asylum. All entries through CBP One are currently canceled.