Department of Homeland Security’s biggest mistake: “It’s time for you to leave the United States. The federal government will find you”
Several Ukrainians living legally in the U.S. under humanitarian parole were given the scare of their lives when they received a letter demanding they leave.
During Joe Biden’s presidency, he announced a program called “Uniting for Ukraine”, which allowed Ukranian citizens to come and live legally in the United States while their country was at war after Russia invaded. That was in 2022.
As a part of the program, the Ukranian would need to be sponsored by an American citizen, but then they’d be allowed to travel to the U.S. and would be considered for humanitarian parole on a case-by-case basis. If approved, they would be allowed to work in the U.S. as well.
Now, those Ukranians living legally in the U.S. under this parole program, are rightfully concerned they will soon be getting kicked out under Donald Trump’s administration.
Department of Homeland Security sends Ukranians into a panic
Several Ukranians living under the humanitarian parole received an extremely concerning notice from the Department of Homeland Security this week, harshly demanding that they leave the country.
“It is time for you to leave the United States,” the department wrote in a “notice of termination of parole”. “Do not attempt to remain in the United States - the federal government will find you.”
The notice also threatened to end their parole in a week’s time.
The next day, that same group that got the notice received a follow-up email telling them that the original message had been sent “in error”. It said, “no action will be taken” and the “terms of your parole as originally issued remain unchanged at this time.”
.@lisamurkowski and I are calling on @Sec_Noem to immediately explain how the Department of Homeland Security mistakenly sent an email to Ukrainians on humanitarian parole in the U.S. that they had seven days to leave the country. pic.twitter.com/gFzvV2m9mN
— Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (@SenatorShaheen) April 7, 2025
While that was a major relief, the damage from the initial notice was already done, and now Ukranians are rightfully worried that their time safely living in the U.S. without a threat to their livelihood is only temporary. Indeed, the second notice does note that nothing has changed “at this time”.
The DHS confirmed that the original message was sent in error and that they will not be deporting any Ukranians under humanitarian parole nor will they be considering terminating the program. Back in January, they paused admissions after Donald Trump took office.
Since then, the DHS has criticized Biden’s humanitarian parole programs, and Trump’s administration has ended the legal status of more than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela under one of Biden’s programs. Trump has also had hundreds of legal migrants detained, including student activists who are pro-Palestine as well as Israel critics. So it’s no wonder the Ukranians are concerned they could be next.
The president and founder of an organization called IA NICE, which helps sponsor Ukrainian families, Angela Boelens, spoke about the trauma the original notice caused two Ukrainian women, one who has a small newborn, and another who is currently pregnant. She said they were “just immediately terrorized...crying, calling their sponsors, saying, ‘What did I do?‘”
It begs the question, who wrote the notice in the first place and how did it get sent by accident? And what does the future hold for those Ukrainians escaping their war-torn country?
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