Fleeing Legal Limbo After 19 Months of Waiting
Ukrainian refugees who built temporary lives in the United States are packing their belongings and leaving the country as humanitarian programs and extensions expire. Zhanna Martyrosian, 68, who survived the 2022 bombing of her home in Mariupol, boarded a late flight to Argentina on Oct. 10 with her family, fleeing an immigration status that had come to feel intolerable, the Deseret News reported.
The family’s departure coincides with the formal expiration of the 18-month extension of Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians, announced by the Department of Homeland Security during President Joe Biden’s final days in office. While federal law provides for an automatic six-month extension if DHS fails to make a timely decision, the lack of clear federal guidance has left workers unable to prove their status to employers.
Expired Humanitarian Parole Leaves Families Facing Detention Fears
Anzhelika Martyrosian and her husband, Illia Naiier, spent 19 months waiting for a government response after applying for an extension of their Temporary Protected Status. Neither has a parking ticket, yet the mounting administrative silence fueled fears that they could be detained and separated from their 2-year-old son, Andrew.
She doesn’t feel safe here any longer,
Anzhelika said of her mother, noting that the family closely followed news about immigration enforcement operations. Two weeks prior to their departure, Illia left a logistics and supply chain management job in New Jersey that he loved. The family sold their car and personal possessions, including their child’s toys and a guitar, to fund a move to a one-bedroom apartment in Argentina where they do not speak the language.
I felt like I always was in the air,
Illia told the Deseret News, emphasizing that they wanted to escape perpetual legal limbo.
Weighing Uniting for Ukraine Against Rising Enforcement Pressures
Maryna Slepak arrived in Maryland in 2022 with her two children under Uniting for Ukraine (U4U), a Biden-era federal humanitarian parole program that admitted roughly 240,000 Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war. Slepak initially planned to stay for a year, but after her original humanitarian parole expired in the fall of 2024, she reapplied for both parole and Temporary Protected Status.
Now relying on pending status as her family awaits further federal determinations, Slepak described the emotional toll on her children. Zach Kahler, a spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told Politico in October that the agency is actively processing discretionary re-parole cases for Ukrainians on a case-by-case basis.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention since January 2025, according to an analysis shared with the Deseret News from data compiled by the Deportation Data Project. Of those arrested, 146 had pending criminal charges, while others faced denials on asylum applications or immigration court appeals because generalized wartime violence does not automatically legitimize an asylum claim.
Immigration Enforcement Numbers and Administrative Silence
Federal data shows that roughly 185 Ukrainians remained in active ICE detention centers across the country as of mid-2026. Over the prior 18 months, approximately 150 to 200 Ukrainian nationals were formally deported or removed from the United States.
Olga Bukanova, a Ukrainian living in Utah, described the psychological strain as similar to sitting on an active volcano. Department of Homeland Security officials have maintained in public statements that TPS and U4U were designed as temporary humanitarian safety nets rather than permanent residency tracks.
As administrative processing delays stretch on, families are left with a stark choice: wait indefinitely for bureaucratic decisions or liquidate their assets and relocate to nations offering clearer pathways to permanent residency.