Over 45,000 Americans Have Applied To Sponsor Displaced Ukrainians
In just over a month, the Uniting for Ukraine private sponsorship program has attracted huge support.
In late April, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the launch of a new private sponsorship program through which American citizens could support Ukrainians displaced by the Russian invasion. According to DHS data shared with CBS News last week, over 45,000 Americans have applied to help resettle Ukrainians in the United States since the Uniting for Ukraine program began.
United Nations data indicate that more than 14 million Ukrainians have left their homes since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Nearly 7 million of them fled to neighboring countries. Though millions of displaced people have already returned to safer regions in Ukraine, much of the nation remains under siege—and many Ukrainians are seeking family reunification and more stable homes elsewhere in the world.
Roughly 6,500 Ukrainians had arrived in the U.S. through the sponsorship program as of June 1, while another 27,000 have been authorized to travel here to join their American sponsors. Those coming here aren't refugees in the technical sense of the word. Rather, they're parolees, which means they can only live and work in the country for two years. The relief is designed to be temporary, which will deprive many Ukrainians of a lasting haven. But the program is nonetheless an important component of the global response to the exodus in Eastern Europe.
It arose at least partially in response to deep deficiencies in the U.S. immigration system. The American refugee resettlement program slowed severely thanks to the Trump administration and pandemic-era restrictions on cross-border movement. Just 11,411 refugees were resettled in the U.S. in FY 2021, short of an annual cap of 62,500. Other visa pathways have severe application backlogs, meaning that few existing immigration options were well-suited to handle the massive flight of Ukrainians. The fact that 22,000 Ukrainians were admitted after crossing the southern border only solidifies the necessity of laying out a predictable, direct pathway.
This private sponsorship initiative cuts the refugee program and its agency-based resettlement process out of the mix entirely. Instead, private citizens must connect with displaced Ukrainians (via Facebook, for example) and agree to financially support them before they may come to the United States. This ensures that Ukrainians arrive with a built-in safety net. The program's breadth is directly linked to citizen-level generosity and welcome—important factors for sustainable refugee resettlement. The resettlement structure also helps funnel Ukrainians into the communities best-equipped to receive them. About 15 percent of American sponsors live in the New York metro area, and all other top sponsorship regions are major cities—many of them with large Ukrainian populations.
Uniting for Ukraine isn't a perfect answer for every displaced Ukrainian, but it allows private citizens to get involved in immigration relief in a novel way. A far-off emergency scenario can leave many benevolent people wishing they had a practical way to help. This program is a meaningful start. The fact that 45,000 people have already volunteered to participate bodes well for the future of private sponsorship.
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That’s very decent of those folks. Good for them.
Yes it is.
More importantly do you get to pick your Ukrainian?
What if you don’t like the one you get?
Why isn’t Reason advocating this for Yemenis or Uighurs? Not current thing enough yet?
I want pictures, stats (including measurements), a list of turn ons, etc..
Please never stop writing about this, Fiona. It’s important to drive home the fact that Koch / Reason libertarianism analyzes international events through the same framework it uses for domestic issues — “How can this increase our benefactor Charles Koch’s supply of cost-effective labor?”
#WarIsGoodBecauseItCreatesRefugees
#CheapLaborAboveAll
The relief is designed to be temporary, which will deprive many Ukrainians of a lasting haven.
I don’t understand this statement. It seems to be based on a foregone conclusion.
About 15 percent of American sponsors live in the New York metro area, and all other top sponsorship regions are major cities—many of them with large Ukrainian populations.
Which is exactly what I predicted. The idea that a Ukrainian refugee would leapfrog 42 countries to land in the US is dubious. They’re going to want to land in neighboring countries with similar cultures. the only reason they’d want to come to the US would he if they either had always long wanted to come to the US, and this conflict provides that opportunity, or they have family here. Ukrainians that have family, jobs, houses and other social links to Ukraine but few outside are not going to be interested in moving 10,000 miles away for a conflict that might be over in three weeks, three months or even a year or so. It just doesn’t make sense. For instance, if something… “bad” happened in the United States which caused me enough grief to want to leave the country, I wouldn’t be clamoring to get into Korea, China or Jordan.
What about liberland?
An old oil derrick in the middle of the ocean? Do you have no humanity?
I was thinking the land between Croatia and serbia
Most people want to come to America to get rich and live the dream. Ukrainians live impoverished lives, the us would be a step up in both liberty and way of life. Plus they have the added bonus that now the US can’t over throw their democratically elected government. Oh wait….
Together with the admission of 22,000 Ukrainians along the southern border, the 6,500 admissions and 27,000 expected arrivals under the United for Ukraine program could allow the U.S. to receive over half of the 100,000 Ukrainian refugees President Biden vowed to welcome, all within the next three months.
FYI, this was said in passing in this article and the linked article. What does this mean? Does this mean that Mexico is doing its usual thing: standing against the wall and letting refugees pass through its country because they have no intention of dealing with these people?
They can deal with all the Ukrainians – as long as the Ukrainians weld themselves together and pretend to be Siamese
Make the sponsors take out bonds for long term funding. See how long they are willing to sponsor them for.
I put in for 22 year old supermodel twins, but still no photos.
Same. Twincest a plus.
Give ’em weapons and ammo and tell them to get back to Ukraine and fight.
In theory, the sponsors are financially responsible for the refugees.
In practice, you know full well that the Biden administration is going to dump tax payer dollars on the refugees by the bucketload.
Why the US should take in any Ukrainian refugees is beyond me. Refugees are supposed to stay near their nation of origin in cultures similar to their own, because the intent is that they return home.
Well for one we are responsible for their plight. For two, if we don’t import tons of useless feeders every year, we will end up economically like japan. So we need fresh blood to keep the machine running.
15k? That’s it? This is great news! Usually it’s an order of magnitude more per month.
A month ago we were a disgusting, horrible, basically Nazis, country because we weren’t importing millions of Ukrainians – now we’re to be celebrated because a paltry 45k *might* be able to find a place to stay when they come over?
Let’s be honest, we don’t really want them coming over here. We prefer the mules from Columbia.
When they could easily go get a homeless person off the street to live with them without all the paperwork. But that isn’t uber cool